According to the adage, physicians bury their mistakes. But with a new eye-surgery simulator they can erase them. The simulator is under development (two functioning prototypes exist) by a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Georgia Medical College.
According to team member Keith Green, MD, medical residents have traditionally learned surgery in three ways: by observing others; by practicing on cadavers and dead animal eyes; and by operating on patients under the close supervision of experienced surgeons. This means that until the procedure is learned, young MDs are practicing on you and me. "It's the first fifteen or twenty cases that are critical to learning," says Green.
But the eye-surgery simulator holds the promise of offering a new way to hone the resident surgeons' skills so that when they start practicing on warm bodies, they'll be less apt to slip up. Just as in actual eye surgery, the surgeon peers through an operating microscope-like device, but this one is attached to a Silicon Graphics workstation. With a stylus in hand that functions as a surgical tool, the user gets the look and feel of a real eyeball, including cutting and bleeding. This is better than working on a cadaver or an animal eye, both of which become soft after prolonged use, says Green. "We can actually simulate the pressure within the eyeball in our computer program."
When it's available in a couple of years, Green expects the first market to be medical schools, but he also anticipates other users. Because the program will simulate various eye diseases, the experienced surgeon will want to practice with it before operating on rarely seen maladies. What's more, Green sees the profession moving toward testing for periodic recertification and feels the simulator will be ideal for that. He also expects hospitals to use it prior to giving physicians surgical privileges. "Can this person do retinal surgery?" Green mimics. "Well let's put him on the simulator and see."
But the real boon will be for patients who undergo operations performed by budding surgeons. With the VR simulator, Green believes surgeons can go through the steep part of the learning curve using silicon instead of people. Keith Green: +1 (706) 721 0211.
- Paul McCarthy
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