00:00 Exterior
- QMC, Nottingham
Sign
showing Simulation & Clinical Skills Centre
Wide
shot - dummies in Simulation Centre
c.u.
Technician placing oxygen mask on dummy
Overhead
shot - mask going onto dummy
Wide
exterior, University of Nottingham
c.u.
University sign
Wide
shot - researchers in group, chatting
Demonstrator
sat at Virtual Reality Simulator
Tilt
down from simulators face to haptic device
Screen
shot of tweezers manipulating "brain"
Guide Voice: This is the Queen's Medical Centre
in Nottingham and this is their Simulation Centre, where medical
students and staff come to hone their skills - practising on state
of the art mannequins that can replicate a range of clinical
conditions.
Now researchers at the neighbouring University of Nottingham
have taken medical simulation to the next level. Scientists from
the University's Schools of Mechanical Engineering, Computer
Science and Human Development have come together to create the
prototype of a simulator that combines three dimensional computer
graphics with technology that allows surgeons to feel as though
they're actually touching a human brain as they operate.
00:37 Soundbite: Professor Adib Becker,
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical,
Materials and Manufacturing Engineering - "The
simulator is a device, a method of obtaining a response to a
device, which you hold by the fingers, and the force in the device
feeds back from the computer to allow you to feel an object that is
not really there; it's virtually there and you can feel the
response of that object wherever you actually poke it in
space.?
00:58 Soundbite: Michael Vloeberghs,
Paediatric Neuro Surgeon, University of Nottingham and Queen's
Medical Centre - "Dummies can only go so far -
you're still limited by the physical presence and you can't do
everything, you can't do major surgery on dummies, it doesn't work
that way. You can simulate electrically and phonetically what is
happening but nothing more than that. Virtual reality and,
specifically, false feedback has all the advantages of teaching
people to do proper surgery."
01:19
Pan from heart rate
monitor to Simulation Centre technician
c.u.
technician's face
Wide,
technician entering info on chart
Technician
demonstrating stethoscope technique on dummy
Guide Voice: Traditionally surgeons working on
such advanced operating techniques have relied on training based on
observing practising surgeons and conducting operations under
supervision. Pressure on resources, staff shortages and new E.U.
directives on working hours make this means of "on the
job" learning increasingly difficult to accommodate.
01:40 Soundbite: Michael Vloeberghs
- "Previously we trained neuro surgeons on the
job - there are problems with that; first of all risk to the
patient, risk for infection, MRSAs is very high on the cards these
days in publicity. There's also the restriction of working times;
our trainees have to obey working time directives and there's less
exposure to big and complex operations. Training on the job is good
but it can only go so far and I would hope that we could come to a
form of accreditation of simulator operating much as you do in
civil aviation."
02:10
Surgeon sat at
simulator
Wide
shot showing group looking over surgeon's shoulder
Reverse
of above and pan to surgeon
Screen
shot, cut being made
Wide,
another surgeon at simulator
Group
shot around simulator
c.u.
surgeon at simulator
Wide
of above
Demonstrator
explaining simulator to surgeon
Guide Voice: Surgeons were able to test the
prototype of the simulator at a conference on continuing medical
training, held recently at the University's Medical School, and
were clearly impressed by the "feel" of the experience.
The simulator is particularly effective in that it is able to make
cuts in the graphic generated brain, something that previous
machines have been unable to do.
This simulation of surgical cutting in real-time computing is
particularly difficult to achieve. Cutting creates new surfaces
that did not exist before the cut was made. Nottingham's
researchers have devised new computational methods that allow the
software to respond to the cut in real-time.
02:48 Soundbite: Michael Vloeberghs
- "The difficult part, or the unique part, of
this project is that you can have a surface, you know the
properties of the surface, which means you know the properties of
the inside, but being able to cut into that create a new surface,
pull them apart and do it all over again, in an update time for the
computer which is very short and is approximately the same speed as
a human neurone, that makes all the difference. You can use other
techniques but your update will take you 25 seconds or even minutes
to do. This update is nearly in real time".
03:21 Pan
across group at simulator presentation
c.u.
another surgeon testing simulator
Group
shot around simulator
Reverse
of above
Guide Voice: The University of Nottingham's
researchers are convinced that this new simulator can be used to
train surgeons to a higher level before they graduate to the
operating theatre, making complicated surgery significantly safer
for patients and greatly reducing the risk of complications. In the
long term, the possibilities for this medical simulator could be
even more exciting.
03:41 Soundbite: Prof. Becker
- "If you project maybe four or five years from now it may
be possible, indeed it's quite feasible, for a surgeon to operate
on a patient totally remotely. So the surgeon would be located
somewhere else in the world and can communicate through the
internet possibly, with some robotic assistance, can actually feel
the operation as they are seeing it on the screen."
04:00
Screen shot,
tweezers manipulating cut
Guide Voice: Creating a new simulator like this
may not be brain surgery - but it really is the next best
thing!
04:07
END
