Instructors get hi-tech help
AN automated debriefing tool is revealing new possibilities in simulation-based medical training at Deakin University’s School of Medicine.
The debriefing tool, a collaborative project between the university’s Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation, the School of Medicine and Melbournebased industry partner YTEK, is changing the way medical students are trained and assessed in life support skills.
Using computational technology developed by IISRI and software from YTEK, the tool evaluates trainee performance by drawing on sensory information provided by a mannequin simulating a patient.
It provides immediate feedback, reduces the cognitive demands on instructors and identifies individual and cohort limitations to aid in curriculum development.
Samer Hanoun, a senior research fellow in simulation and scheduling at IISRI, said testing in the School of Medicine over the past year had shown the tool automated almost 50 per cent of the tasks instructors assessed manually.
“In a normal setting, train- ers are required to assess technical and non-technical skills, which is time consuming and cognitively demanding,” Dr Hanoun said.
“This tool allows instructors to concentrate on observing the non-technical skills, such as communication, decision making and situational awareness of trainees, while the tool monitors how well the procedure is followed.”
Developing the technology involved IISRI researchers working with subject matter expert Kellie Britt, lecturer in simulation and clinical skills with the School of Medicine, to understand basic life support protocol.
“We modelled the scenario based on how the tasks flow from one stage to the next then converted the scenario to rules that capture the required parameters, such as how long it should take a student to begin and complete a task,” Dr Hanoun said.
Ms Britt said the tool allowed instructors to more accurately assess the strengths and areas for improvement. The tool also highlights what could be improved from a teaching and curriculum perspective to support learning.
“For example, we observed that students often failed to keep the mannequin’s airway open while assessing ‘the look, listen, and feel’ for breath. As instructors, this task was something we really needed to focus on because every student performed poorly on that aspect,” she said.
Ms Britt said the tool was now seen as essential as it could provide visual feedback for students and assist instructors to identify areas requiring improvement and set goals.
“The great benefit is providing deliberate practice and feedback. So for the student who is not doing so well, or even for the student who just wants to practice, they can per- form the tasks over and over on the mannequin and track their own performance using the feedback report,” she said.
Ms Britt said it was hoped the tool could be integrated into School of Medicine and School of Nursing curriculum training and assessment in 2018.
While Ms Britt and Deakin’s School of Medicine team, Karen D’Souza and Dean of Medicine Jon Watson, see the potential for the tool in medical training, Dr Hanoun and his colleagues, IISRI director Saeid Nahavandi and James Zhang, as well as YTEK chief executive Richard Yanieri, are all working on developing it for other sectors.
“The real beauty behind the tool is that it can be adapted to different training needs. You can capture the knowledge required for a particular scenario and run the algorithms based on the encoded knowledge to measure performance,” Dr Hanoun said.
“It can be adjusted to scenarios of different complexities and the parameters changed to meet different learning objectives according to the level of the learner.”