Prospective, Randomized Assessment of Transfer of Training (ToT) and Transfer Effectiveness Ratio (TER) of Virtual Reality Simulation Training for Laparoscopic Skill Acquisition

Abstract

Objectives: 

We assessed the effectiveness of ToT from VR laparoscopic simulation training in 2 studies. In a second study, we also assessed the TER. ToT is a detectable performance improvement between equivalent groups, and TER is the observed percentage performance differences between 2 matched groups carrying out the same task but with 1 group pretrained on VR simulation. Concordance between simulated and in-vivo procedure performance was also assessed.

Design: 

Prospective, randomized, and blinded.

Participants: 

In Study 1, experienced laparoscopic surgeons (n = 195) and in Study 2 laparoscopic novices (n = 30) were randomized to either train on VR simulation before completing an equivalent real-world task or complete the real-world task only.

Results: 

Experienced laparoscopic surgeons and novices who trained on the simulator performed significantly better than their controls, thus demonstrating ToT. Their performance showed a TER between 7% and 42% from the virtual to the real tasks. Simulation training impacted most on procedural error reduction in both studies (32- 42%). The correlation observed between the VR and real-world task performance was r > 0·96 (Study 2).

Conclusions: 

VR simulation training offers a powerful and effective platform for training safer skills.

In Brief

Transfer of training (ToT) and transfer effectiveness ratio (TER) of virtual reality (VR) laparoscopic simulation training was assessed in 2 prospective, randomized studies. ToT from VR to a real-world task was demonstrated in both studies and TER with high concordance (r > 0.96) was estimated to be approximately 26–42%.