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Completed

NCT Number: NCT03413943

Utilizing Gaze Training to Enhance Laparoscopic Skills Training

The purpose of this study is to test the influences of gaze training (GT) on the acquisition of laparoscopic surgical skills. For this purpose, the investigator will compare variants of GT in the second of 2 experiments. These questions will be evaluated using the validated Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) module 1, with the overall goal of developing a surgical training curriculum that achieves expert level skill in an expedited timeframe. This research provides a novel approach to general surgery training that has the potential to reduce the amount of time and repetitions required to achieve expert laparoscopic skills.

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Key information

Conditions

Healthy Volunteers

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Duke University Medical Center

Durham, North Carolina, 27710, United States

About this study

Developing expert performance requires assessment of the thought processes underlying performance and continued refinement of skills in order to obtain automaticity and intuition. Therefore, developing expert surgical skill is a process likely to take longer than the length of residency, thereby diminishing the quality of care delivered to patients.

The proposed study will implement novel neuroscience technique of gaze training to determine if it has the capacity to accelerate technical surgical skill learning in order to achieve competency and expertise in an earlier timeframe. Studies of skill performance have demonstrated that eye movement patterns can be optimized to improve subsequent motor movements. Therefore, gaze training encourages novices to adopt the more efficient gaze patterns of experts while performing a specific task such as laparoscopic surgery. This technique has been applied in the training of surgical residents in a limited capacity making this project an innovative approach to enhance skill development.

Experiment 2: Determine if gaze training can accelerate the learning of laparoscopic skills.

In this experiment the investigators will first establish expert gaze patterns in the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery modules 1 and 5 by testing a total of 9 participants, including attending surgeons, senior residents, and novices trained to proficiency. The investigators will then compare behavioral learning curves from non-expert participants without gaze training against those trained using both explicit (by reviewing the expert gaze pattern) and implicit gaze (by using a visual mask during the training, leading the participant to follow the expert gaze) derived from the expert gaze patterns. This will be tested in 3 groups of 20 participants, who train for 40-minutes in each of 6 sessions that occur within 3 weeks.

The investigators hypothesize that both explicit and implicit gaze training will lead to faster skill acquisition, with implicit greater than explicit and measured by trials required to gain proficient module completion scores, relative to the group of participants who practice without any gaze training.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age >18 years
  • Healthy male and female
  • Willing and able to provide informed consent
  • Able to follow study procedures

Treatment and study plan

gaze training

Other

Gaze training will consist of gaze tracking and then review of performance or the use of an implicit map to train an expert gaze pattern.

Other names: Argus Science

Primary outcomes

  1. Time to completion

    Time frame: Collected for pre- and post-tests performed prior to and after the 6 separate training sessions within 7-days.

    Completion time for each repetition of FLS task 1

Secondary outcomes

  1. Number of tasks completed

    Time frame: This will be collected for every repetition performed during the 6 separate training sessions within a 7-day period.

    The number of times each FLS task 1 is completed during each training session.

  2. Number of errors

    Time frame: This will be collected for every repetition performed during the 6 separate training sessions within a 7-day period.

    The number of errors (as defined by FLS) during completion of tasks will be recorded and transitioned into a time addition.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Duke University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Utilizing Gaze Training to Enhance Laparoscopic Technical Skills Training

Important dates

Study start
2018
Primary completion
2020
Study completion
2020
First posted
Jan 29, 2018
Registry last updated
Jan 12, 2021

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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