Robotic surgery is increasingly employed in almost every specialty, however provision in rural and remote areas remains limited. One solution is portable training models for the operative steps, so rural surgeons may learn these procedures and offer them locally and independently, or in combination with a remote specialist.
In this study, participants performed port placement using Pindari™ hydrogel models with an insufflatable and a fixed abdominal wall. Questionnaires were completed to provide feedback on face and content validity.
16 participants have been included to date, from novice to expert in various specialties. For the insufflatable model, there was an improved understanding of insufflation and depth (75%) and an increase in confidence of port placement and insertion (68%). In the fixed abdominal wall model, there was an increased confidence in port placement (75%) with improved understanding of the layers of the abdominal wall (68%). Overall utility of both models was 62.5%
This pilot shows these models improve confidence and knowledge in simulated port insertion. Further research is ongoing at the International Medical Robotics Academy to ultimately produce training deliverable to any rural or remote hospital with surgical capacity. With lower cost robots and advancing technology, this is a future reality.