Evaluating and Training Intraoperative Analysis of the Mitral Valve
Abstract
Mitral valve repair is the recommended method of
treating valve incompetency. However, the procedure is quite
difficult and, as a result, underperformed due to surgeon’s need
to predict the closed valve shape of the patient’s arrested heart.
While the interactive process of predicting closed valve shape is
achieved by physically manipulating valve tissue (known as valve
analysis), surgical training consists of traditional, non-interactive
pedagogy (e.g., book-based learning and lectures) followed by
an apprenticeship model where the trainee is gradually given
hands-on experience, resulting in post-medical school training
that is often 10 years or greater. The continuing education of
practicing cardiac surgeons also typically relies on the absorption
of presented information rather than hands-on instruction.
The dichotomy of training an interactive process thorugh noninteractive
instruction is obvious and inefficient. Therefore, in
this work we develop an interactive, simulation-based system for
training valve analysis and the prediction of closed valve shape.
We show that not only can such a system distinguish between
users of differing skill levels, but it also is more effective than
traditional pedagogy in training predictive skills, suggesting the
potential of such methods to improve existing instruction and
thereby increasing the rate of valve repair.