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Gaze-based Technology as a Tool for Surgical Skills Assessment and Training in Urology
Carolina Diaz-Piedra1, Jose M Sanchez-Carrion2, Héctor Rieiro3
1Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ.
Objective:
To assess the sensitivity of gaze-based metrics in detecting cognitive demands imposed by surgical procedures. We analyzed urologists' gaze entropy and velocity while performing 2 standardized high-fidelity simulated stone procedures with different levels of complexity.
Methods:
Using a wearable eye tracker device (mounted onto an eyeglass frame), we measured gaze entropy and velocity in 15 urologists, members of the Andalusian health-care system, while they performed an extraction of a stone in the bladder (low complexity) and an extraction of a stone in the lumbar ureter (high complexity). We also collected performance and subjective data.
Results:
Gaze entropy and velocity were significantly higher when surgeons performed the most complex surgical procedure: the visual exploration pattern became less stereotyped (ie, more random) and faster. Surgeons' performance and perceived task complexity differed accordingly, confirming the gaze-based results.
Conclusion:
Gaze-based metrics might have great potential as objective and nonintrusive indices to assess surgeons' cognitive (over)load, potentially being a complementary assessment tool to quantify the learning curve for surgical procedures.
