Periocular basic skin surgery simulation: a randomised controlled educational trial

Session Details

Session Title: Cornea & Miscellaneous
Session Date/Time: Saturday 22/02/2020 | 08:30-11:10
Paper Time: 10:26
Venue: Auditorium des Ministres.

First Author: H.Naveed UK
Co Author(s): R. Hudson  M. Khatib  F. Bello           

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Simulation supports skill enhancement at a time when exposure to actual surgical procedures and traditional apprentice based teaching has declined. The advancement of smartphone and tablet devices with rich, touch sensitive displays and increasing processing power, makes a compelling argument for expanding accessibility further by development of mobile virtual simulations for training on demand in any setting, at any time. The purpose of our study was to develop a novel tablet-based simulation App to teach concepts of periocular skin surgery, and test it in a randomised controlled trial.

Setting:

Centre for Engagement and Simulation Science, Imperial College London

Methods:

We developed a tablet-based simulation App to teach concepts of three defect facial surgical techniques: elliptical closure, bilateral advancement (H flap) and semicircular rotation flap, with additional resources such as videos and formal guidelines made available at relevant points in the simulation. A randomised educational trial was conducted using the mobile simulation App with 18 medical students that were divided equally into two groups: the intervention group learning using the new mobile simulation App, and a control group, undergoing traditional text-based self-study. The students were then assessed on knowledge and skills acquisition through an MCQ and a task analysis score.

Results:

Students in the intervention group performed significantly better than the students in the non-intervention group in both forms of assessment, with an average multiple-choice assessment score of 62.95% points versus 56.59%, respectively (p=0.034), and an average task analysis score of 3.53 versus 2.58, respectively (p=0.012).

Conclusions:

Touch-based simulation provided an efficient and superior method of learning three different local flap techniques for facial soft tissue reconstruction, and helped recalling steps involved in the surgery in a fluid manner that also improved task performance.

Financial Disclosure: