On April 25, Richard H. Feins, M.D., a thoracic surgeon in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at UNC, presented the cardiac surgery curriculum developed with funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association (TSDA).
In 2011, Feins was awarded a three-year, $1.05 million grant by the AHRQ to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study use of simulators for cardiac surgery training. Feins’ team consisted of experts from Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Rochester, Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, and the University of Washington.
Dr Feins noted that in today’s high-stakes operating room, there often is insufficient time for residents to learn surgical techniques by apprenticeship, practice their skills, and learn how to deal with adverse events. The focus of this project was to demonstrate that training in cardiac surgery techniques could be improved by combining cardiac surgery simulation technology with a rigorous, simulation-based curriculum.
The researchers assessed the effectiveness of using simulator-based training in component tasks of cardiac surgery and overall procedures based on six modules: three types of cardiac surgery and three significant adverse events that can occur during cardiac surgery. They employed a computer-controlled, tissue-based cardiac surgery simulator that has been shown to realistically duplicate an actual patient undergoing cardiac surgery. While the project focused on cardiac surgery residents, the results potentially could apply across a broad spectrum of surgical practice.
A PDF of Feins’ presentation can be found here.
AHRQ Grant # 1R18HS020451-01