Pulse of Surgery: an immersive educational operating room experience for the community

Pulse of Surgery is an immersive educational initiative for the general public created in 2011 in partnership with The Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Louisville Jewish Hospital / UofL Health and the Kentucky Science Center (Louisville KY). Pulse of Surgery integrates a livestreamed cardiac surgery complemented by real-time bidirectional engagement and discussions with the surgical team and fun hands-on complementary educational activities. The goal of this initiative is to create an innovative, accessible, and equitable platform that may support cardiovascular health awareness, scientific curiosity, and to help participants envision themselves participating in and making potentially significant contributions to the STEM and healthcare fields. To date, 33,962 participants have participated in 238 Pulse of Surgery events. Total program reach includes broad community audiences, while student survey data came from a small sampling of middle/high school attendees (n=94 respondents from November 2025-May 2026, grades 6^th-12th). Enthusiastic programmatic ratings including 90% of survey respondents reporting that it was an excellent or good educational experience and 79% reporting that participating improved their understanding of healthy lifestyle choices. The objective of this paper is to present a programmatic overview of Pulse of Surgery and summary of participant and teacher feedback, with the aims of sharing our experiences and providing a roadmap for others to reproduce a memorable and educational surgical experience for the public.