Research Project
9777736
PROJECT SUMMARY Oral and Maxillofacial (OMF) Surgery is considered a dental specialty, but both medicine and dentistry contribute to the unique scope, skills, and training needed to perform craniofacial surgeries. OMFS residents receive basic training with powered drills, but not with the powered saws needed to perform osteotomies. The OMF surgical community is making an active effort to develop new approaches to surgical training in order to compensate for limits in work hours, mitigate differences between training standards, and improving the efficiency of learning while minimizing the risks for the patients. Simulation-based learning, a technology adopted in other training paradigms, has demonstrated potential in enhancing surgeons' knowledge and psychomotor skills. We propose developing a fully immersive, high fidelity virtual trainer that will improve the current standard of OMF surgical training by enhancing the learning of difficult surgical skills with minimal risk to the patients. During the Phase I of this project, we developed a Virtual Reality (VR) based, fully-immersive OMF surgery trainer prototype. This system allowed surgeons to train for the osteotomy step in Sagittal Split Osteotomy (SSO). The system, currently a prototype, will be completed during this Phase II. We will finalize our Osteotomy Trainer by addressing technological limitations found in Phase I, generalizing it to contain more craniofacial osteotomies surgical scenarios and performing clinical validation. After executing those steps our product will be ready for commercialization. We believe the Osteotomy Trainer has the potential to generate market revenue while improving the training process for OMF surgeons and other related disciplines without adding risks to patients.
