Eye-Hand Coordination Patterns of Intermediate and Novice Surgeons in a Simulation-Based Endoscopic Surgery Training Environment

The Role of Virtual Reality in Advancing Surgical Training in Otolaryngology: A Systematic Review

Technological advancements have rapidly transformed medical education and surgical training, with virtual reality (VR) emerging as a valuable tool. VR offers immersive and interactive environments, enhancing the development of surgical skills without the risks that come with conventional training methods. In this review, we conducted a comprehensive search across PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), considering all relevant publications up to June 30, 2024. This review focused on randomized controlled trials involving medical students, where VR was used alone or in combination with other educational approaches, compared to traditional training methods. Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed the quality of studies using the modified Downs and Black scale. Of 1,074 identified articles, six studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies, conducted in Denmark and Australia, utilized a range of VR platforms, including the Visible Ear Simulator, MediseusVR Surgical Drilling Simulator, and Geomagic Haptic device. Quality assessments showed that the studies generally had strong methodology, with reporting scores between 7 and 8 out of 11, and external validity scores between 2 and 3 out of 3. Results indicated that VR training has the potential to improve hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and surgical performance in ENT procedures. However, findings on VR's superiority over traditional methods were mixed, as some studies found no substantial differences in performance metrics. Overall, VR offers a controlled and risk-free training environment that may enhance the acquisition and retention of surgical skills in ENT surgery. Although VR demonstrates significant promise, additional research is needed to fully establish its effectiveness and explore its broader application in surgical education. This systematic review provides a detailed evaluation of VR's impact on ENT surgical training, highlighting its potential to transform the future of surgical education.

An Eye Tracking Based Framework for Safety Improvement of Offshore Operations

Offshore drilling operations consist of complex and high-risk processes. Lack of situational awareness in drilling operations has become an important human factor issue that causes safety accidents. Prolonged work shifts and fatigue are some of the crucial issues that impact performance. Eye tracking technology can be used to distinguish the degree of awareness or alertness of participants that might be related to fatigue or onsite distractions. Oculomotor activity can be used to obtain visual cues that can quantify the drilling operators' situational awareness that might enable us to develop warning alarms to alert the driller. Such systems can help reduce accidents and save non-productive time. In this paper, eye movement char-acteristics were investigated to differentiate the situational awareness between a representa-tive expert and a group of novices using a scenario-based Virtual Reality Drilling Simulator. Significant visual oculomotor activity differences were identified between the expert and the novices that indicate an eye-tracking based system can detect the distraction and alert-ness exhibited by the workers. Results show promise on developing a framework which implements a real-time eye tracking technology in various drilling operations at drilling rigs and Real Time Operation Centers to improve process safety.

Skill, or Style? Classification of Fetal Sonography Eye-Tracking Data

We present a method for classifying human skill at fetal ultrasound scanning from eye-tracking and pupillary data of sonographers. Human skill characterization for this clinical task typically creates groupings of clinician skills such as expert and beginner based on the number of years of professional experience; experts typically have more than 10 years and beginners between 0-5 years. In some cases, they also include trainees who are not yet fully-qualified professionals. Prior work has considered eye movements that necessitates separating eye-tracking data into eye movements, such as fixations and saccades. Our method does not use prior assumptions about the relationship between years of experience and does not require the separation of eye-tracking data. Our best performing skill classification model achieves an F1 score of 98% and 70% for expert and trainee classes respectively. We also show that years of experience as a direct measure of skill, is significantly correlated to the expertise of a sonographer.