Surgical Coaching. Made smarter and simpler through VBA.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”

Over the course of history, the quote has been attributed to the likes of Aristotle, Confucius, Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire.

While the true origin might be untraceable, the quote has withstood the test of time. It has also spilled over into the domain of medicine and become known, in slightly modified form, as the surgeon’s mantra:

“See one, do one, teach one”

The quote reflects an experimental method of learning, whereby trainees for the operating team and surgeons will observe a procedure, perform one on their own, and then teach another trainee how to conduct a procedure. This has been called real world evidence based assessment, or as a simpler term, Video Based Assessment (VBA).

While it’s been long known that experience and practice are essential ingredients for educating surgeons, a big challenge remains providing authentic training coupled with feedback loops based on real-world data. In order to achieve this, it is essential to have a system fully embedded in the clinical workflow of te hospital.

Caresyntax’ data driven surgery platform offers such IoT-sourced and data-driven coaching support. This enables coaches to take the guess work out of surgical training as they leverage surgical video and data resources to enhance training with recreated surgical episodes.

What does VBA look like in practice?

1. Prior to each session, an introductory meeting between the coach and trainee takes place. Both discuss the scope of the day’s training session, set objectives, and determine key performance indicators (KPIs).

2. Soon after, the trainee proceeds into the operating room (OR) to conduct the surgery. caresyntax’ deployment options allow the surgeon to integrate and record up to four video streams simultaneously, enhancing review with multiple perspectives. Audio sources can also be integrated and recorded.

3. After the surgery has been completed, the aggregated data gets instantaneously uploaded to caresyntax VBA cloud, where it’s safely stored.

4. The coach receives a real-time push notification, notifying him that the case is ready for review. Next, he / she proceeds to review the recording of the case in the platform. The tool enables the coach to annotate recorded content to highlight areas of needed improvement. This provides valuable feedback to the trainee. Towards the end of the review, caresyntax? enables the coach to score the surgery based on a globally validated assessment framework (e.g. OSATS, NOTSS etc.).

5. Once the case has been reviewed, the trainee receives an automatic notification, who logs in to caresyntax? to review the feedback. The dashboard on displays key surgical performance metrics and the post-operative reporting. The trainees then have the possibility to also discuss their performance in-depth with their coaches based on the recordings the and KPIs set.

6. However, the most important step comes during the closing of the cycle, as trainees apply their learnings the next time in the OR.

And the feedback has been fantastic

We’ve been working with the American Board of Surgery (ABS), who selected Caresyntax’s software to run a program assessing VBA as a tool to support continuous certification and formative skill assessment. The program feedback was that:

• 95% of surgeon participants had an interest in continued use of the software
• 78% of surgeon participants had moderate-to-high interest in continued use of the software
• 92% of surgeon participants had moderate-to-high interest in using for 4th & 5th year residents

So what’s the bottom-line of Caresyntax’ surgical coaching offering?

Faster and educated surgeons and surgical teams: As the trainees leave Med School and become surgeons, nurses or OR technicians, they will have benefited from hands-on training combined with valuable feedback based on real-world data. We have been able to show 3 x faster learning on surgical skills when based on video.

Greater patient safety: Not only trainees but also surgeons benefit from the collected OR-data. As their surgeries get recorded, surgeons benefit from the post-surgical performance analysis. This enables them to apply the learnings directly into clinical practice, enhancing their performance, patient safety and minimising risks for hospitals.

Curious? Reach out to me now to learn more about how Caresyntax's platform can boost learning and performance!

Or watch the full Caresyntax platform in action here: