Thesis Project Form

Before starting clinical practice, surgeons need to learn how rely on different haptic feedback. In particular, they must recognize between different biological tissues, perform dexterous tasks in limited space, and use surgical instruments which limits, misses or distorts haptic information, resulting in a higher risk for tissue damaging.
In this context, medical simulation can support surgical learning in a riskless environment. Recent studies have reported that abilities acquired through simulation can be transferred in real practice, with better outcomes. However, one of the greatest limitations of surgical simulation is the haptic feedback which is usually unrealistic or totally missing. Having realistic haptic feedback during the training can improve sensory perception, dexterous motor ability acquisition, resulting in a better surgical performance.
Surgical training, especially at the beginning of residency, is exploited through box-trainers, (i.e., devices for laparoscopic training including a camera and different objects to create preparatory activities), or animal models, with subsequent ethical issues. Also, there are some commercial devices for surgical training. However, they are expensive and not completely realistic from the haptic point of view.

The work of the thesis will be focused on the implementation of an educational tool for surgical training and research. The project starts from two previous thesis works aimed at creating a visuo-haptic model of the skin and implement surgical tasks such as incision and suturing by using a Geomagic Touch haptic device and the open source SOFA framework.
The student will collaborate with a team of surgeons, to define the further steps to be taken to create a tool which can be used by residents and physicians who need to be trained on different surgical abilities, as well as by researchers to investigate surgical learning. This includes: (i) improve the existing visuo-haptic models and exercises, according to the feedback provided by the users during the first trial; (ii) add new exercises (both mono a bimanual); (iii) define with the surgeons the proper scoring system; (iv) integrate the system with biological data acquisition system; (v) test the simulator with potential users.

1. Analysis of the existing models and tools
2. Identification of the changes to be implemented (collaboration with Surgeons at SimAv)
3. Software implementation (SOFA)
4. Testing phase and data analysis (Matlab/Python/SPSS)