Validation and Emotional and Cognitive Assessment of the TSYM Symgery Simulation Platform for Spine Surgery

The learning of bimanual skills is very important in spine surgery since errors can result in poor patient outcomes. Surgical trainees develop these skills by watching expert surgeons do operations and as they acquire more experience, they are given more responsibility to perform complex operations. The limitations of this learning method are the low numbers of expert surgeons to teach these skills and patients may be at increased risks during this traditional approach to training students. Virtual reality spine simulators provide realistic simulated spinal operative procedures in environments in which there are no risks to patients and students can repeat procedures as many times as needed to acquire the necessary skills. One of the important questions involving virtual reality simulator systems is are they useful in the teaching of the appropriate skills necessary to do the operation and how do surgical trainees respond emotionally by being taught by these simulators? The purpose of these studies is to assess if a new spine virtual reality simulator can be useful in the training of surgeons in complex spine operations and how do students respond emotionally to this instruction.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ronaldo Del Maestro

Student:

Partner:

Symgery Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

McGill University

Program: