Validation of the VBLaST: A Virtual Peg Transfer Task in Gynecologic Surgeons

Christopher Awtrey (1) , Amine Chellali (2) , Steven Schwaitzberg (3) , Suvranu De (4) , Daniel Jones (1) , Caroline Gl Cao (5)

1 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
2 IBISC - Informatique, Biologie Intégrative et Systèmes Complexes
3 Department of surgery, Cambridge Health Alliance
4 RPI - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
5 Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To validate the virtual reality VBLaST-PT (the peg transfer task) for concurrent validity based on its ability to differentiate between novice, intermediate and expert groups of gynecologists, and the gynecologists' subjective preference between the physical FLS system and the virtual reality system. DESIGN: Prospective study (Canadian Task Force II-2) SETTING: Academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Obstetrics and gynecology residents (n = 18), and attending gynecologists (n = 9) INTERVENTIONS: Twenty-seven subjects were divided into three groups: novices (PGY1-2, n = 9), intermediates (PGY3-4, n = 9), and experts (attendings, n = 9). All subjects performed ten trials of the peg transfer on each simulator. Assessment of laparoscopic performance was based on FLS scoring while a questionnaire was used for subjective evaluation. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The results show that the performance scores in the two simulators were nearly identical. Experts performed better than intermediates and novices in both the FLS trainer and the VBLAST© and intermediates performed better than novices in both simulators as well. The results also show a significant learning effect on both trainers for all subgroups however the greatest learning effect was in the novice group for both trainers. Subjectively 74% participants preferred the FLS over the VBLaST© for training laparoscopic surgical skills. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that the peg transfer task was reproduced well in the VBLaST in gynecologic surgeons and trainee's. The VBLaST© has the potential to be a valuable tool in laparoscopic training for gynecologic surgeons.

Domaines: Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Christopher Awtrey, Amine Chellali, Steven Schwaitzberg, Suvranu De, Daniel Jones, et al.. Validation of the VBLaST: A Virtual Peg Transfer Task in Gynecologic Surgeons. Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, 2015, 22 (7), pp.1271--1277. ⟨10.1016/j.jmig.2015.07.015⟩. ⟨hal-01187311⟩