TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
JHU scientists have developed methods for skill assessment and feedback to trainee surgeons. Increased research attention has been paid to the training of novice surgeons by providing objective skill assessment. Robotic surgery is one training tool that has gained widespread use across surgical disciplines in both real and simulated environments. The current performance metric in robotic surgery tasks is instrument tip distance, measured in a fixed reference frame. This standard has trouble distinguishing between novice and proficient motions. This disclosed invention addresses this problem by the creation of performance metrics that is more indicative of skill acquisition and retention. These methods use instrument pose, including the orientation and position, as an indicator of a surgeon’s intent and skill while performing a dexterous surgical task. Included in the methods are techniques to identify and filter out unimportant and unsafe motions. Additionally, the developed method defines a dynamic reference frame relevant to the specific task in order to magnify the differences between novice and experienced motion. These methods can help assess and improve robotic surgical techniques of novice surgeons.
ADVANTAGES (Features & Benefits)
• Captures measurements of human intent during dexterous, surgical training tasks for use skill assessment and feedback.
• Use of instrument pose as a metric for performance, rather than instrument position, to quantify user performance.
• Employs a dynamic reference frame to magnify the difference between experienced and novice motion.
• Filters out instrument noise, redundant motions, and unimportant movements from skill assessment.
• Use of a multi-class classification system to provide feedback to user.
COMMERCIAL APPLICATION
This technology is useful methods for the training surgeons by providing skill assessment and feedback. Such feedback can increase the abilities of a surgeon performing robotic procedures, thereby lessening the risk error during un-simulated surgery. These methods can be commercialized as a systems or curricula for training surgeons and clinicians in simulation and real world training environment.
PUBLICATIONS/PATENTS
U.S. Provisional Application filed.
