Hand Motion Analysis & Surgical Evaluation & Training

Project Description

Technical performance in surgery has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, not least due to several highly publicized cases where it has been suggested that poor outcomes were the result of inadequate technical skill. As part of the drive toward Simulation Training, surgical competences of junior surgeons are being evaluated from the earliest years of their training. Therefore, there is a need to establish an objective, reproducible and reliable system for the training and assessment of surgical skills.

We wills use a high precision optical motion capture system, which is a promising tool in Surgical Skills Teaching & Training to determine the parameters of the surgeon's forearm, hand, digit and surgical tool motion during various surgical movements in order to establish a reliable, repeatable and objective method for the evaluation of the progress and the quality of training of the surgical trainees during their surgical curriculum. Parameters such as hand movement economy and precision, time efficiency, and consistency will all be measured, assessed, stored and compared to the expected level of performance.

In collaboration with NHS Grampian and University of Aberdeen