ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: In particular after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a precipitous rush to implement virtual and online learning strategies in surgery and medicine. It is essential to understand whether this approach is sufficient and adequate to allow the development of robotic basic surgical skills. The main aim of the authors was to verify if the quality assured eLearning is sufficient to prepare individuals to perform a basic surgical robotic task. METHODS: A prospective, randomized and multi-center study conducted in September 2020 in the ORSI Academy, International surgical robotic training center. 47 participants with no experience but a special interest in robotic surgery, were matched and randomized into 4 groups who underwent a didactic preparation with different formats before carrying out a robotic suturing and anastomosis task. Didactic preparation methods, ranged from a complete eLearning path to peer-reviewed published manuscripts describing the suturing, knot tying and task assessment metrics. RESULTS: The primary outcome was the percentage of trainees who demonstrated the quantitatively defined proficiency benchmark after learning to complete an assisted but unaided robotic vesico-urethral anastomosis task. The quantitatively defined benchmark was based on the objectively assessed performance (i.e., procedure steps completed, errors and critical errors) of experienced robotic surgeons for a proficiency based progression (PBP) training course. None of the trainees in this study demonstrated the proficiency benchmarks in completing the robotic surgery task (Figure 1a-c). CONCLUSIONS: Quality assured online learning is insufficient preparation for robotic suturing and knot tying anastomosis skills.
ABSTRACT
Introduction & Objectives: After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic there was a precipitous rush to implement virtual and online learning strategies in surgery and medicine. In response there appears to be a precipitous rush to implement virtual and online learning strategies in surgery and medicine which many educators (particularly in industry) appear to believe can mitigate or supplant the necessity of skills laboratory training. It is therefore essential to have a robust and evidence-based understanding of this premise and to evaluate whether this approach is sufficient and adequate for learning basic robotic surgical skills and to prepare individuals to perform a basic surgical robotic task. Materials & Methods: A prospective, randomized and multi-center study 47 participants were matched and randomized into 4 groups who underwent proficiency based progression (PBP) eLearning, eLearning without benchmarks, traditional lectures and learning from peer-reviewed published manuscripts describing the suturing, knot tying and task assessment metrics. Afterwards the PBP group had skills training under COVID secure conditions. Results: The primary outcome was the percentage of trainees who demonstrated the quantitatively defined proficiency benchmark after didactic learning. (i.e., 5-Procedure Steps completed, <10 Errors and 0 = Critical Errors). Figure 1a-c shows that none of the trainees in this study demonstrated all three proficiency benchmarks (Procedure Steps p<0.001 – 0.000;Errors, p=0.403 – 0.001;Critical Errors, 0.016 – 0.001) (Figure 1a-c). After six hands-on training trials and ~ 3 hours training all PBP trained participants met all three proficiency benchmarks. Figure 1a-c. The mean and 95% CI of procedure Steps, Errors and Critical Errors made by the four groups of trainees on the robotic surgery vesico-urethral anastomosis model relative to the proficiency benchmark for each performance metric. Also shown are how far off the proficiency benchmark performance was. (Figure Presented) Conclusions: Although better than traditional learning strategies, quality assured online learning is insufficient preparation for basic robotic surgical skills. Medicine in general but surgery and procedure-based medicine specifically would be imprudent to be overly optimistic about how effective quality assured online learning is without skills lab. training.