TOTBV-06: CREATION OF LOW COST ENDOSCOPIC SKILLS MODEL FOR FUNDAMENTALS OF ENDOSCOPIC SURGERY TESTING
Kaitlin A Ritter, MD; Cleveland Clinic Foundation

What problem in education is addressed by this work?:
The Fundaments of Endoscopic Surgery exam is an ACS Board requirement designed to test resident endoscopic motor skills. Training simulators for skills practice are commercially available, but the high price point often makes purchasing even one system a significant investment and prohibitive for larger residency classes. Residency programs are left to grapple with how best to prepare their trainees for this examination in a cost-efficient manner.

Describe the intervention:
Synthetic colon model were created using liquid fast drying silicon and other commercially available hardware parts and designed to interface with the common endoscopic tower models used in clinical practice. Models were low cost (less than $20) and easily created requiring approximately 1-2 hours of construction time and 3-4 additional hours for drying so multiple models could be produced with limited financial cost or time commitment. Model design allowed for practice of a variety of endoscopic motor skills including mucosal evaluation, targeting/tool manipulation, retroflexion and loop reduction all critical motor skills for successful completion of Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery test.

Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
Design and construction of these endoscopic models was performed in conjunction with our surgical simulation department. Although created by educators with specialized skills in model design, actual model construction is simple and creation of instruction manuals will allow for widespread application at other institutions. Once the colon models are created, programs are able to interface the models with already available endoscopic systems and skills training is no longer limited by availability of high cost simulators.