A Ubiquitous Context-Aware Environment for Surgical Training

The age of technology has changed the way that surgeons are being trained. Traditional methodologies for training can include lecturing, shadowing, apprenticing, and developing skills within live clinical situations. Computerized tools which simulate surgical procedures and/or experiences can allow for “virtual” experiences to enhance the traditional training procedures that can dramatically improve upon the older methods. However, such systems do not to adapt to the training context. We describe a ubiquitous computing system that tracks low-level events in the surgical training room (e.g. student locations, lessons completed, learning tasks assigned, and performance metrics) and from these derive the training context. This can be used to create an adaptive training system.