Surgical Residents - Innovative Training

Novel 3-D simulation technology helps surgical residents train more effectively:

Vishal Patel, Rajesh Aggarwal, Daniel Cohen, Dave Taylor, Ara Darzi. Implementation of an Interactive Virtual-World Simulation for Structured Surgeon Assessment of Clinical Scenarios.

Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 2013; 217 (2): 270  10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2013.03.023

A novel interactive 3-dimensional (3-D) simulation platform offers surgical residents a unique opportunity to hone their diagnostic and patient management skills, and then have those skills accurately evaluated according to a new study appearing in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The findings may help establish a new tool for assessing and training surgical residents.

Previous research studies have shown that the management of patient complications following operations is an extremely important skill set for surgeons to master. Therefore, in addition to performing operations, surgeons must also be able to effectively manage surgical patients in the emergency room, on the hospital floor unit, or in the intensive care unit. Until now, the standard approach for this instruction has been to learn to master this skill set on patients.

"The way we learn in residency currently has been called 'training by chance,' because you don't know what is coming through the door next," said study coauthor Rajesh Aggarwal, MD, PhD, MA, FRCS, a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) clinician scientist in surgery at Imperial College, St. Mary's Hospital in London. "What we are doing is taking the chance encounters out of the way, residents learn and forming a structured approach to training."

Using an online virtual world called Second Life™, a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Imperial College, St. Mary's Hospital developed three virtual reality environments -- a standard hospital ward, an intensive care unit, and an emergency room.

Medical Education and Training Unit (MET)

Medical Education and Training Unit:

The MET Unit is responsible for ensuring that:

(i) The HSE’s legislative responsibilities in medical education and training are met appropriately. These responsibilities are set out in the Health Act 2004 and the Medical Practitioners Act 2007.

(ii) Government policy and HSE strategies for the development of medical education are appropriately implemented.

(iii) The current and future needs of the public health service, in terms of medical training and specialist medicine workforce planning, are addressed, in order to ensure safe, quality patient care.

(iv) The HSE plays a central role in the organisation, structure, management, coordination and funding of medical education and training in Ireland.

(v) Resources for the support and delivery of medical education and training in the Irish public health service are managed in a coordinated, cost effective manner.

(vi) The medical education and training system reflects, and is responsive to, the changing needs of the health service on a national and ongoing basis.

Medical Education and Training Hub - www.hseland.ie.
The Medical Education and Training Hub can be accessed on www.hseland.ie. On this hub you can learn more about medical training in Ireland and the work of the Medical Education and Training (MET) Unit, including the programmes and scholarships which are supported by the Unit. The hub provides regular updates for trainees and trainers on various aspects of medical training.

Contact details for Medical Education and Training
Email: met@hse.ie Telephone: (01) 6352892

Endurance Training - Vitamin Supplements

Study cautions against high dosages of vitamin C and E, especially for athletes

Research finds pills could blunt metabolic response of muscles to fitness training



A study published today has raised concerns about the effects of vitamin C and E supplements on people involved in endurance training.

The research, published in the Journal of Physiology, found the vitamin pills could blunt the metabolic response of muscles to fitness training. Dr Gøran Paulsen, who led the study at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, said the study had identified a significant trend but further research was needed.

“Our results show vitamin C and E supplements blunted the endurance training-induced increase of mitochondrial proteins, which are needed to improve muscular endurance.”

In the 11-week trial, 54 young, healthy men and women were randomly allocated to receive either 1000mg vitamin C and 235mg vitamin E – the same amount found in shop supplements – or a placebo. They completed an endurance training programme which mostly involved running. Fitness tests, blood samples and muscle biopsies were taken before and after the intervention.

The supplements did not affect oxygen uptake or the results of a 20m shuttle test but they did show markers for the production of new muscle mitochondria – the power supply for cells – increased only in the group without supplements.

View article in the Journal of Physiology here