Portable Imperial College Surgical Assessment Device (pICSAD)

Background
Dexterity is a crucial aspect of surgical competence. Technical ability to perform a procedure is considered to be crucial for a safe and effective outcome and is also an important aspect of surgical training. However, a lack of haptic feedback particularly in laparascopic surgery training is a major obstacle and there exists a need for the development of objective methods for surgical assessment.

Invention
This invention relates to a training package that aims to provide skills training and assessment for surgeons. Imperial inventors have developed a special glove, designed to be fitted onto the hand of a training surgeon, which contains a sophisticated motion tracking system. Hand movements and motions during a surgical procedure are captured by software designed to collect positional data and convert this data to dexterity measures. The system can also calculate the time taken for the task, distance travelled by each hand and the average speed and can be used to analyse the precision of individual hand movement to assess the degree of accuracy and quality of surgical technique. For ease of use, transportation and application ‘in the field’, the components of pICSAD have now also been packaged into a tailor-made tool-box, featuring a user-friendly touch-screen interface and providing easy access to the device within a robust kit.

Benefits
The invention is applicable to both training and quality control in surgery, providing valuable feedback to the surgeon on surgical technique and skill. It could also be used to assess the impact of adverse environmental and organizational factors such as shift patterns, sleep deprivation, fatigue and noise on surgical performance. Particular benefits of the invention include:
• Ability to select trainees for certain procedures that require a high level of skill by use of a quality of performance measure. Current motion analysis measurements are purely quantitative.
• Assessment is immediately available without being influenced by inter-station or inter-observer reliability.

IP & Commercial Opportunity
A UK patent application has been granted and owners are now seeking partners for further development and licensing.

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Type of Offer: Licensing



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