Adding Safety Rules to Surgeon-Authored Virtual Reality Training

Area of Science:

• Medical Simulation
• Surgical Education Technology
• Virtual Reality in Medicine

Background:

• The Toolkit for Illustration of Procedures in Surgery (TIPS) is an open-source virtual reality (VR) laparoscopic simulation environment with force feedback.
• The TIPS-author interface allows surgeon educators to create custom laparoscopic training modules.
• This system incorporates automated safety rule specification, error tracking, and feedback mechanisms for surgical trainees.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utility of the TIPS VR simulation environment for surgical training.
• To assess the impact of an error snapshot feature on the perceived usefulness of the TIPS system.

Main Methods:

• Surgeon educators used the TIPS-author to build training modules with customizable anatomy and safety rules (location, proximity, separation, clip count, force).
• The system automatically monitored and recorded errors during simulations, capturing visual snapshots for trainee feedback.
• The TIPS system underwent field testing at two surgical conferences, with user feedback collected before and after implementing the error snapshot feature.

Main Results:

• Sixty-four respondents rated the overall utility of TIPS at 5.24 out of 7.
• The perceived utility of the statement "The TIPS interface helps learners understand the force necessary to explore the anatomy" increased from 5.04 to 5.35 after the error snapshot mechanism was added.
• Ratings for other aspects of the TIPS system remained largely unchanged.

Conclusions:

• The TIPS open-source system, with surgeon educator-authored training units and integrated safety rules, is a viable tool for surgical education.
• The inclusion of SE-determined procedural errors presented via snapshots enhances the perceived utility of the VR training system.