Trainee surgeons in gynaecology and general surgery across the South West are now benefitting from brand new portable surgical simulators that use Augmented Reality (AR) software to provide the most realistic training experience available, without working on real patients.

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has a new surgical simulation unit to help enhance gynaecology and general surgery training for the many trainees who, as a result of the pandemic, have been unable to complete their competencies. In some cases, this has meant delaying their CCT (Certificate of completion of training) to allow progression to consultant level.

This new technology will now be used across the South West to help speed up the training of these surgeons. It’s thought that in the UK, up to one million training opportunities have been lost due to COVID-19.

The units are designed to emulate laparoscopic surgery, which is where a camera and surgical instruments are inserted into the body and the surgeon performs the surgery via a monitor that displays what the camera is seeing inside.

In each unit there is a prosthetic simulation of human tissue and the trainee surgeon uses the laparoscope to work inside the box while watching progress on a screen.

The rubber tissue inside provides ‘haptic feedback’ to the trainee, simulating the touch and feel of a real surgical procedure. The AR software then improves what is displayed on the screen so it looks far more like a real operation.

Lisa Knight, Consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the Royal Devon, said: “Not only will this project help tackle our training backlog, but by allowing surgeons to acquire surgical skills remotely, it also greatly speeds up the training process, giving confidence to the surgical trainees and helping them to achieve CCT.”

A grant from Health Education England enabled the Trust to buy these units and the first trainees are now beginning to use them in Exeter, Torbay, Plymouth and Truro. The project has been set up and led by Lisa Knight, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Frank McDermott, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, and Dr Elizabeth Thompson, Anaesthetist and SIM Fellow. The Simulation Suite has also generated two fellowship roles in general surgery and gynaecology to encourage peer-to-peer teaching and to run annual training courses across the South West.