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Towards virtual FLS: development of a peg transfer simulator
Author(s) -
Arikatla Venkata S.,
Ahn Woojin,
Sankaranarayanan Ganesh,
De Suvranu
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the international journal of medical robotics and computer assisted surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1478-596X
pISSN - 1478-5951
DOI - 10.1002/rcs.1534
Subject(s) - computer science , construct validity , construct (python library) , trainer , simulation , face validity , transfer (computing) , operating system , psychometrics , statistics , mathematics , programming language
Background Peg transfer is one of five tasks in the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS), program. This paper reports the development and validation of a Virtual Basic Laparoscopic Skill Trainer‐Peg Transfer (VBLaST‐PT © ) simulator for automatic real‐time scoring and objective quantification of performance. Methods New techniques have been introduced in order to allow bi‐manual manipulation of pegs and automatic scoring/evaluation while maintaining high quality of simulation. A preliminary face and construct validation study was performed with 22 subjects divided into two groups: experts (PGY 4–5, fellow and practicing surgeons) and novice (PGY 1–3). Results Face validation shows high scores for all aspects of the simulation. Two‐tailed Mann–Whitney U‐test scores showed significant differences between the two groups on completion time ( P = 0.003), FLS score ( P = 0.002) and the VBLaST‐PT© score ( P = 0.006). Conclusions VBLaST‐PT © is a high quality virtual simulator that showed both face and construct validity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.