Learning Curve in Medical Industry

Abstract

The aim of training processes is to provide the trainees with knowledge which gives them proficiency for handling the situation without the help of the master. In neurosurgery, similar to other disciplines, the training procedure is the knowledge transfer between experts and novices which happens either during surgeries or using the training videos. By using eye tracking technique, differences in gaze control strategies among expert and novice neurosurgeons is detected and we aim to apply training interventions to facilitate the performance and enhance the learning curve.

Keywords: neurosurgery, micro-neurosurgery, eye-tracking, gaze reply, gaze training

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Training the future generation of the practitioners is always one of the main considerations in medical education. Similar to other medical disciplines, in neurosurgery, the primary goal of training process is to provide trainees with knowledge which give them professional judgment to handle the neurosurgical practice independently. Micro-neurosurgery is performed on micro-scale structures of nervous system using miniaturized instruments and under a high magnification of a surgical microscope. The surgery procedure is a combination of various techniques and tools with complex interactions among team members and between the tools and the users [1, 2, and 3].

Surgeons acquire the competency to manage such a complex procedure through years of training as well as experience and expert neurosurgeons transfer the knowledge either by providing information via offline surgery videos, or explanation during a real-time surgery practice.

Surgical training, similar to many other skills, benefits from apprentice model: “observation of what the experts do”. Perhaps using training videos is one of the frequent ways due to the different restrictions of real-time observations.

From another perspective, researches have revealed proficiency related to differences in gaze control among experts and novices in many disciplines [4 and 5], in Neurosurgery, the different visual attention strategies among experts and novice neurosurgeons have a great potential for training and evaluation procedure.

Eye-tracking gives the opportunity to derive the pattern of the expert eye movements and applying training interventions to facilitate the performance.

METHODS AND RESEARCH GOALS

As a joint study with department of neurosurgery in Kuopio University Hospital we have been conducting studies to understand the gaze control strategies as well as potentials for training interventions. The result of these studies opens a door to think about enhancements in knowledge transferring procedure in neurosurgery environment.

To do so, the current eye tracking devices and techniques enable us to study the gaze behavior of experts and novices on training videos. It is proved that the strategies regarding to gaze control among expert and novice neurosurgeons differs [6]. We aim to detect the effective factors in this regard to enhance the learning curve.

General expectation is observing the actions of expert somehow transfers the same manual and eye-hand coordination skills to the novice. But it seems this is not always possible, because it would be enough to look at the video once and learn what to do and how (with the hands, with the tools).  The ideal goal of acquisition procedure in aiming any type of skills is to reach to the mastery level as well as optimizing the process. Looking at theoretical approaches in this field, points to the role of attention to expedite learning process and maintaining the good performance under different conditions. [7, 8 and 9].

By understanding the differences among experts and novices, interventions designed to guide optimal gaze control help young neurosurgeons to become skilled and expert at the same time.