Created 06/23/2017 at 2017:02PM

This week flew by even faster than the first - crazy how much time passes by when you are having fun. I dove into more literature articles this week on telestration, telementoring, and robotic usage in surgery. The Anne Arundel Medical Center librarian, Joyce Miller, helped picked out amazingly useful articles for us to read. There are so many amazing opportunities for improved technology in the operating room, and especially, in my opinion, for the future of remote teaching, which will be helped by wearable technology and gesture-oriented systems. If one is able to detect, and display precisely where a surgeon is pointing/gesturing towards through technology, this improvement in communication will potentially result in fewer medical errors, and faster learning for the potential surgical residents. Surgery is such a hands-on learning experience, and allows for little mistakes, so gaining a clear understanding of the instructors is exceptionally important.

This week I started working on the protocols, and the methodology of the experiment. We hope to collect data of people (proctors and trainees) using our Kinect system to learn simulated surgical tasks. In addition to collecting objective data such as task completion time, economy of movement (how efficient each surgeon moves), we also want to collect more data on the subjective spectrum. Thus we are creating surveys which include questions on attitudes on the effectiveness of using the Kinect as a gesture-based teaching tool, for both the trainee and the trainer, where it lies on the spectrum of clarifying to distracting. Hopefully by next week we will finish with the protocols, and be ready to start data collection.

Through the week I also enjoyed afternoon runs with the Annapolis Striders, a great local running group. An intense track workout, or a scenic jog by the Annapolis harbor really makes a difference and gives a completely different view to the day. Running through the neighborhoods of red-bricked houses, green trees makes even the most humid days a fun experience. We got to see the harbor bridge open up to let a cruiseship pass by through, pausing to look out of the harbor under orange hazy clouds of the sunset.