Simulation-Based Open Surgery Training System (SOSTS)

ToLTech will design a realistic and adaptive, virtual reality based simulator for training open surgery skills. The simulator will provide a platform for procedures to be practiced and evaluated in any part of the entire human body. The simulator will include embedded metrics for the evaluation of user techniques. It may also be used to evaluate the feasibility of new surgical approaches or yet to be built surgical devices. ToLTech will utilize image data from the National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human, proprietary classification masks defining the contents of the Visible Human images (owned by ToLTech), and commercially available 3D stereoscopic and haptic feedback devices to display the surgical field. We will also lay the foundation for including improved models derived from higher resolution cryosection data currently under development or yet to be proposed. The virtual reality implementation will provide adaptive and alterable surgical presentations along with quantitative user assessment. This training tool will be used and reused in a learner-centered environment at the user’s pace and availability. A full curriculum of surgical experiences will be provided.