Measurements of the level of surgical expertise using flight path analysis from da Vinci robotic surgical system

Laparoscopic surgical procedures require precise hand and eye coordination based on a 2-dimensional representation of 3-dimensional space. Currently, no metric exists to guide the educational process while surgeons are still on the learning curve. In this paper, we propose to identify and qualify the patterns of movements recorded from the da Vinci robotic surgical system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale CA) that are most consistent with mastery and can define levels of proficiency. We have recorded velocities and positions of complex movements made by both novice and expert surgeons using da Vinci system and performed geometric and statistical analysis of the data.