In this file picture, Professor Mashudu Tshifularo performs a transplant surgery on a patient born with an underdeveloped middle ear at Steve Biko Academic Hospital. Picture: Bongani Shilubane/African News Agency(ANA)
Johannesburg - Stellenbosch University is moving to more innovative ways of teaching surgery to medical students.
Researchers from the university recently published their findings on using wearable GoPro cameras to record surgical procedures from the surgeon’s point of view and then use them to teach medical students in the journal Clinical Teacher.
One of the researchers, Professor Karin Baatjes from the Division of Surgery in Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, said: “Wearable GoPro cameras allow recordings of surgical procedures from the surgeon’s view for additional educational purposes.
“These recordings could be used as supplementary material towards self-learning and revision by students and to build video libraries for research and assessments as well.”
Baatjes and Alex Keiller, from the university’s Centre for Learning Technologies, Alwyn Louw from the Centre for Health Professions Education, and Marietjie van Rooyen from the University of Pretoria assessed the feasibility of using the GoPro Hero camera to record operations at Tygerberg Academic Hospital for educational purposes.
Louw recently passed away.
Eight breast and endocrine surgical procedures were recorded with patient consent over the study period, with an average duration of the unedited surgical videos being 65 minutes.
No adverse patient events related to the use of the GoPro camera during operative procedures were experienced, the researchers said.
Some of the problems experienced included that all three surgeons who performed the experiment experienced heaviness of the camera and tightness of the head band.
Baatjes says there is a need to review surgical training and to seek innovative educational alternatives.
“Resources for training of the surgical operative technique are limited. These include limited training time, variable exposure to procedures during the clinical rotation and inadequate opportunities to review procedures outside the operating room. Furthermore, the trainee’s view of the procedure differs from that of the operating surgeon.
“The recording of surgical procedures on the GoPro camera as an educational adjunct is practical and user-friendly and does not impair clinical patient care. The videos have cross-discipline potential for teaching within medicine,” Baatjes said.
She emphasised that even though the videos can be used as supplemental material towards self-learning and revision by students, they should not replace active participation in operations.
According to their paper, “the recording of surgical procedures on the GoPro camera as an educational adjunct is practical and user-friendly, without impairing clinical patient care”.
The next phase entails formation of a video library. She said: “The evaluation of the educational usefulness of the video as an additional tool of instruction has already begun.”
The Star