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Surgical Simulation

About Our Surgical Simulation

To a very great extent, simulation is the future of surgery. Within a few years, no surgical procedure will be performed without first perfecting it on a full-sized, 3D, and possibly haptic simulation of the specific patient; and most surgical training and skills assessment will be conducted on simulators.

Recognizing that this is the future of surgery, the Department is actively involved in the research and development of simulation technologies both within the Department and in partnership with both global and local hardware engineering and software development corporations. These are applied throughout training, and especially in the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery programs described below.

Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS)

Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS), a national certification initiative for laparoscopic skill and knowledge, is an example of a program using objective criteria for skill training outcomes.  The Department’s Surgical Skills and Simulation Laboratory is an official test center for surgeons interested in becoming certified in FLS. The Laboratory has been certified as a test center since 2007 and currently has two FLS certified testing proctors and an FLS surgical champion within the Department of Surgery. Over 100 surgeons and general surgery residents have been certified through our test center.

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Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery

Official Testing Center The Department of Surgery at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center is one of two sites in Michigan designated as an official testing center for surgeons and general surgery residents who are interested in becoming certified in the Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES). Currently we are doing over 20 tests a year with two proctors.

Contact:
David A. Edelman, M.D., Director, Clinical Professor of Surgery, Educational Planner
Phone: (313) 745-8775
E-mail: dedelman@med.wayne.edu

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Ultrasound Simulator (US)

The surgery faculty, through SEMCE, teach both a basic and advanced US simulation course. The Department has developed an ultrasound simulator with a dummy probe whose position is tracked with 6 degrees of freedom as it is manipulated in contact with a physical model of the abdomen. The coordinate data stream can be used to interrogate a virtual digitized model of the abdomen, resulting in an image that varies in real time with the probe position. This simulation system can be used to teach surgical students the skills they need to pass the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) exam in the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS.) The system is in use and produced such good results for the first class that used it, that non-FLS-trained students from prior classes asked to be trained on the system.
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