Minimally invasive tele-mentoring opportunity-the mito project

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Simulation
• Digital Health

Background:

• Traditional laparoscopic skills training requires in-person instruction, often leading to sporadic sessions and inconsistent oversight.
• Limitations in current programs hinder continuous learning and personalized feedback for surgical trainees.
• A novel approach is needed to overcome geographical barriers and improve training continuity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a smartphone application (Lapp) for remote teacher-student interaction in laparoscopic simulation training.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of Lapp in delivering learner-specific feedback and improving surgical skills.
• To compare the outcomes of remote training via Lapp with traditional in-person simulation training.

Main Methods:

• A web-based and mobile application (Lapp) was created for remote assessment of video-recorded training sessions.
• Instructors provided personalized feedback to surgical trainees at remote locations via Lapp.
• A control group received traditional in-person simulation training and feedback.
• Trainee performance was evaluated pre- and post-training using Global Rating Scale (GRS) and Specific Rating Scale (SRS).

Main Results:

• The Lapp group showed significant improvement in both GRS and SRS scores post-training.
• Trainee performance in the Lapp group improved from 15 [6-17] to 23 [20-25] (GRS) and 12 [11-15] to 18 [15-20] (SRS).
• Outcomes between the Lapp remote training group and the traditional in-person training group were comparable.

Conclusions:

• Mobile app-based laparoscopic simulation training is as effective as traditional in-person instruction.
• Lapp offers a viable remote method for delivering effective surgical simulation training.
• This technology can potentially expand access to comprehensive simulation training curricula.