Correlation of Virtual Reality Simulation and Dry Lab Robotic Technical Skills

Area of Science:

• Surgical Education
• Medical Simulation
• Robotic Surgery Training

Background:

• Robotic surgery requires specialized technical skills.
• Assessing surgical competency traditionally relies on hands-on methods like dry lab drills.
• Virtual reality (VR) offers a potential alternative for surgical skills assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the correlative validity of virtual reality (VR) surgical simulation drills.
• To compare VR drill performance with the validated Robotic Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (R-OSATS) dry lab drills.

Main Methods:

• A prospective methods comparison study was conducted.
• Thirty surgical residents, fellows, and faculty participated.
• Participants completed both VR drills on the da Vinci Skills Simulator and R-OSATS dry lab drills, with randomized order.

Main Results:

• A strong correlation (r=0.83, p<0.01) was found between overall VR and dry lab drill scores.
• Individual VR drills also showed significant correlations with corresponding dry lab drills (r=0.49 to 0.73, p<0.01).
• Performance on VR drills demonstrated construct validity, with higher scores for faculty and fellows compared to residents.

Conclusions:

• A core set of VR surgical simulation drills possesses reliable correlative validity with R-OSATS dry lab drills.
• VR drills can serve as an effective ancillary method for assessing surgical trainee competence.
• This approach may reduce the time and effort required from trainees and evaluators compared to traditional methods.