The innovative teaching concept at the Center for Biomedical Research combines state-of-the-art digital analysis methods with practical surgical training. Under the project title "Smart Surgical Training", surgical teaching is being digitalized. Medical students learn complex suturing techniques on realistic models while eye tracking and movement analysis objectively measure their learning progress.
Surgical training in Austria has changed significantly and could pose major challenges for the provision of care in the future. New concepts are needed to counteract potential shortages of specialists and structural deficits. Our aim is to make targeted use of our expertise in science and expert training in order to meet these challenges with an innovative, practice-oriented teaching concept and thus arouse students' interest in surgical specialties at an early stage.
For capacity reasons, in-depth surgical training is only possible with a limited number of participants. The course includes teaching units of 2 SWS and was held for the first time in the winter semester 2024 with a group of 10 students. Blocks of 5 academic hours per week are trained over 6 weeks. Due to a very good evaluation and the high demand, the number of course places has been doubled for the summer semester 2025. In the long term, a total of 40 students will be able to take part in this course each academic year.
Theoretical basics
The course begins with a brief but comprehensive theoretical introduction. In 3 academic hours, the basics of cardiac surgery, the basic surgical skills to be learned and modern surgical training methods are covered. This knowledge forms the basis for the practical training that follows and enables participants to develop an in-depth understanding of the medical specialty and the technical and anatomical requirements of surgical procedures.
Practical exercises
The main part of the course is the practical training. Participants learn and train vascular suturing techniques in several teaching units, first on plastic prostheses (e.g. Dacron prostheses) and then on ex-vivo models (e.g. pig heart). Special emphasis is placed on creating a practical environment for the students.
Practical training means that only surgical material of the highest quality is used. Due to the surgical focus of the center, students can work with the same surgical instruments, suture material and vascular prostheses that they will encounter in the clinic. The training takes place in operating theaters and procedure rooms on operating tables.
As the final stage of our course, students train on pig hearts obtained from slaughterhouse waste. This ex-vivo model is used to train cardiac surgical bypass surgery with prototypes for blood vessel prostheses (synthetic and biological).
Decellularized umbilical cord arteries are used as biological prostheses, which are produced in the laboratory and tested for their potential for future clinical applications. 3D printed vascular models are also under development and will be tested in the courses.
An important aspect of this course is that participants are gradually introduced to common clinical parameters. At the end of the course, for example, students have the opportunity to anastomose 2 mm blood vessels with 0.07 mm thick sutures, which is otherwise reserved for experienced residents and specialists in everyday clinical practice.
Contact
David Santer
