FEATURE

Baystate Surgery-Chamberlain Group Surgery Training System Awarded the John Adams Innovations Institute Regional Priority Grant

Wedding Physical Model to Curriculum is a Breakthrough in Surgical Residency Training

Prototype of Tactility Surgical Learning System: Open Bowel One

As more surgery is performed laparoscopically, opportunities to teach residents basic open surgery skill sets, such as those involved in intestinal anastomosis, are lacking. Baystate Surgery has partnered with the Chamberlain Group, a small, Great Barrington-based business that produces non-biological simulation tissues, to develop the Tactility Surgical Learning System (TSLS): Open Bowel One. TSLS is an inanimate, intestinal anastomosis model and accompanying curriculum that will help residents build their skills in basic, traditional hand-sewn surgical procedures.

The TSLS, which is designed for repeat usage, comprises a basic open platform for residents learning bowel suturing for the first time, and an advanced abdominal cavity platform that can mimic more complex challenges such as a hand-sewn low anterior intestinal anastomosis. The model may be used to test competency in 5 areas: lysis of adhesions, one layer bowel anastomosis, two-

Dr. Gladys Fernandez Demonstrates TSLS at October 28th Press Conference

layer bowel anastomosis, formation of an end colostomy, and formation of a Brooke ileostomy.

The one-year grant will bring the TSLS project to production-readiness—it will then be marketed to other surgery education programs. According to Neal Seymour MD, principal investigator, the project will result in the very best models that have ever been seen. The project team sees TSLS: Open Bowel One as only the first in series of elegant and accurate models. They plan to develop future kits based on recognized deficiencies in surgery education.

The John Adams Innovation Institute is the economic development division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The Innovation Institute's Regional Priority Award Program funds early-stage, small to medium scale projects that hold promise for stimulating regional job creation and retention in knowledge- and technology-based sectors. The TSLS project team aims to create a paradigm for future BMC projects that will develop solutions to improve patient outcomes while serving as a catalyst for economic development in western Massachusetts.