Surgical Coaching. Made Smarter and Simpler.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”

Over the course of history, the quote has been attributed to the likes of Aristotle, Confucius, Benjamin Franklin, and Voltaire.

While the true origin might be untraceable, the quote has withstood the test of time. It has also spilled over into the domain of medicine and become known, in slightly modified form, as the surgeon’s mantra:

“See one, do one, teach one”

The quote reflects an experimental method of learning, whereby surgical trainees will observe a procedure, perform one on their own, and then teach another trainee how to conduct a procedure.

While it’s been long known that experience and practice are essential ingredients for educating surgeons, a big challenge remains in providing authentic training coupled with feedback loops based on real-world data. In order to achieve this, it is essential to have a system fully embedded in the clinical workflow of the hospital.

Caresyntax’s data-driven surgery platform enables coaches to take the guesswork out of surgical training as they leverage surgical data resources to enhance training with recreated surgical episodes.

How Does This Look Like in Practice?

1. Prior to each session, an introductory meeting between the surgeon coach and trainee takes place. Both discuss the scope of the day’s training session, set objectives and determine key performance indicators (KPIs).

2. Soon after, the trainee proceeds into the operating room (OR) to conduct the surgery. Caresyntax’s deployment options allow the surgeon to integrate and record up to four video streams simultaneously, enhancing review with multiple perspectives. Audio sources can also be integrated and recorded.

3. After the surgery has been completed, the aggregated data gets instantaneously uploaded where it’s safely stored.

4. The coach receives a real-time push notification, notifying him that the case is ready for review. Next, he/she proceeds to review the recording of the case. The tool enables the coach to annotate recorded content to highlight areas of needed improvement. This provides valuable feedback to the trainee and enables the coach to score the surgery based on a globally validated assessment framework (e.g. OSATS, NOTSS, etc.).

5. Once the case has been reviewed, the trainee receives an automatic notification, to log in to review the feedback. The dashboard displays key surgical performance metrics and post-operative reporting. The trainees then have the possibility to also discuss their performance in-depth with their coaches based on the recordings and KPIs set.

6. However, the most important step comes during the closing of the cycle, as trainees apply their learnings the next time in the OR.

So what’s the bottom line of Caresyntax’s surgical coaching offering?

Better educated surgeons: As the trainees leave med school and become surgeons, they will have benefited from hands-on training combined with valuable feedback based on real-world data.

Greater patient safety: Not only trainees but also surgeons benefit from the collected OR data. As their surgeries get recorded, surgeons benefit from the post-surgical performance analysis. This enables them to apply the learnings directly into clinical practice, enhancing their performance, patient safety and minimizing risks for hospitals.