An Eye Toward Improving: A new training approach in ophthalmic anesthesia provides qualitative and quantitative...

In ophthalmic anesthesia administration prior to surgeries for problems such as cataracts or glaucoma, the training of new doctors, as in other surgical specialties, is based on a model in which a student trains on a patient under the expert supervision of an experienced doctor. However, the traditional apprenticeship approach is problematic in eye surgery because ocular structures could potentially be damaged by those administering ophthalmic anesthesia for the first time. Apart from the obvious risk to patients, there is also the inability to quantify the performance of a trainee. One solution to these problems might be found in the development of a manikin-based ophthalmic anesthesia training system that can emulate the human ocular anatomy while providing real-time quantitative and qualitative feedback to the trainee during training.