UW-Madison computer scientists and medical researchers recently collaborated to create an “unprecedented” learning simulator tool for surgical students.
Surgical students will benefit from virtual training in making incisions on skin and tissues under varying conditions. The computer software will expose them to real-life challenges in a safe virtual environment instead of the current standard of first learning on the surgery table.
UW-Madison surgical residents experienced a brief preview of the simulator earlier this month, according to a university release. The tool is still in its early stages and only emulates surgical procedures on the scalp, computer science Assistant Professor Eftychios Sifakis said.
Sifakis explained the idea for the surgical simulation first came to him 10 years ago, when he and his senior surgical cooperator asked themselves if medicine and computer technology could function together to provide higher quality care for servicemen with facial injuries returning home from battle.
Sifakis works with Medicine and Public Health Associate Professor Timothy King, cleft lip and palate expert Court Cutting and computer science graduate student Nathan Mitchell, said in the release he and his team are excited for the simulator’s future developments.
Within the next year and a half to two years, the simulator will also cover surgeries conducted on the lower face and work toward more complex scenarios such as cleft lip and palate procedures and breast reconstruction.
“Our realization was that surgical education is not catered to enough [by] computer technology, whereas other skill-related professions have computerized their environments for training,” Sifakis said.
