Experienced veterinary surgeons require multiple attempts but gain proficiency rapidly in robotic simulator tasks

To assess attempts to proficiency of experienced veterinary surgeons for 2 surgical tasks when using a robotic simulator (Mimic dV-Trainer; Surgical Sciences) and determine factors associated with the successful performance of these tasks.

Veterinary surgeons with rigid, minimally invasive surgery experience performed 2 tasks ("pick and place" and "knot the ring 1") using the simulator until they attained proficiency. Individual performance variables were recorded. The number of attempts to proficiency was recorded. Performance variables were also assessed for effect on proficiency by the Kendall tau correlation and hierarchical multiple linear regression. The study period was from July 25, 2022, through December 14, 2022.

The 18 surgeons enrolled required a median of 8.5 attempts (95% CI, 7 to 12; range, 6 to 22) to reach proficiency for the basic task versus 27 attempts (95% CI, 21 to 38; range, 10 to 63) for the advanced task. Surgeons took a median of 6 minutes (range, 3 to 11 minutes) to complete training for the basic task and 12 minutes (range, 4 to 46 minutes) for the advanced task. The number of attempts to reach proficiency correlated strongly with economy of motion (tau = 0.72), instrument collisions (tau = 0.72), and time to completion (tau = 0.96).

Although experienced surgeons required a high number of attempts to gain proficiency in robotic simulator tasks, they did achieve proficiency quickly, encouraging future investigations into their use for training. Specific motion metrics were identified which improved efficiency during training.