It is impossible for graduating medical students to truly master all the information provided to them for all fields. Medical schools are responding with changes in their curriculum. Likewise, as our understanding of the diseases that affect women increases and our surgical armamentarium rapidly expands, we need to respond within our training programs. When most OB/GYN residencies were formed, all surgeries were either vaginal or abdominal in approach. However, in the relatively recent past there have been major advances in the treatment of women and most of the abdominal surgeries can now be performed laparoscopically. Laparoscopic surgery is a fundamentally new technique with an entirely new skill-set required. Furthermore, the technique itself has a longer learning curve. All of this, coupled with increased requirements for primary care education, work-hour restrictions, and attention to patient safety and medical errors, requires that we change the way in which we view and teach surgery. Many training centers have responded, with simulation training now being an essential component of the education curriculum.

The bottom line is that residents have more to learn in less time with more surgical technology to master, but they must also continue to reduce medical errors and respect patient safety. In many training centers, simulation augments direct instruction from the attending physician. The advances of our specialty as a surgical field is evident with more recent additions of fellowships in urogynecology and minimally invasive surgery. As a result of of shorter patient recovery times and other benefits, as many as 70% of all high-volume surgeries in the US are performed using laparoscopic techniques, and this trend is expected to continue.¹ The learning curve with laparoscopic surgical procedures is long and it is a more difficult technique to learn than open surgery. As the number of complex, minimally invasive medical procedures continues to rise, simulators will play an increasingly important role in surgical training. The best simulators will emulate the look and feel of procedures and include extensive didactic content so that users can acquire both cognitive and psychomotor skills. Surgical simulation has been used in general surgery procedures for years and recently began to be used in OB/GYN laparoscopic procedures. Immersion Medical has created the LapVR™ surgical simulator as a tool for teaching the basic and advanced laparoscopic skills that enable successful completion of complex OB/GYN laparoscopic procedures.

Risk-free Training
A simulator provides a relaxed, stress-free environment in which trainees can learn. The best simulators will provide access to good didactic and hands-on instruction on basic techniques through multiple sensory inputs including visual, auditory, and haptic feedback. A simulator that provides guided instruction on basic techniques such as camera management, grasping and suturing, and knot-tying with realtime feedback is ideal. By providing immediate feedback and recording metrics, the simulator is now useful 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Although an experienced faculty member is an essential part of any educational program, the trainee gets realtime instruction and faculty can evaluate the metrics later.