OrganLike Intelligent Simulation: i-SIM

Congenital heart disease affects 1% of all births and half of these children will require surgical correction prior to the age of 5.  Further, 90% of the world’s population does not have access to cardiac surgical services. To complicate matters further, the training of congenital heart surgeons is an extremely expensive and time-consuming endeavour.

We aim to produce low-cost, tissue-like simulation models that provide most realistic tactile and psycho-motor feedback to assist in the teaching of pediatric cardiac surgical skills. This program combining innovative physical and digital tools will also enable new opportunities for surgeons and trainees with education, self-assessment, real-time feedback and mentorship with experienced surgeons.

We aim to utilize OrganLike products to produce low-cost models that can be distributed to trainees with instruments required to complete a given procedure. A multi-staged approach will be taken.  The trainees will be given access to an online platform (videos or App) that allow them to complete background reading around a given pathology as well as the surgical steps for correction. This will provide them with the resources to receive training from basic surgical skills to perform more advanced procedures, such as ligation of patent ductus arteriosus. Additionally, advanced sensor technologies will be integrated to produce accurate feedback on the psychomotor skill training and anatomical precision such as pressure, tension, cutting and suturing. 

The second phase will add AR to augment the model, which will allow an instructor to join the case and provide real-time feedback as well as mentorship. The intelligent platform can not only assess the progress, efficiency and accuracy of a given trainee, but also record the data, produce real-time feedback and quantify the improvement of the skills during the training practice and self-assessment. 

The final phase of the project will expand both the models and the AR platform to include various different pathologies and operations.

A patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is an abnormal connection between the aorta and the pulmonary artery.  It is a frequently encountered malformation with the practice of congenital cardiac surgery.  The surgical treatment of the PDA is the first surgical skill we plan to teach on our platform.  It is less technically challenging than other facets of congenital heart disease and can be performed without the use of specialized equipment, such as the heart lung machine, making it an ideal operation to be taught and learned in low- and middle-income countries.

Our projects serve children from low- and middle-income countries with congenital heart disease as well as their caretakers, specifically, surgeons who are tasked with the management of conditions, such as a PDA.  Our innovative platform will enhance the surgical skills of these surgeons by providing them the unique opportunities for target practice as many times as needed based on the feedback they will receive from the intelligent models and and mentorship upon a condition they may otherwise have no access to. When the performance parameters are within the acceptable range, they will feel more confident to perform a real procedure on a child.

Marissa Seepersaud, MD (Team Lead, Guyana)

Rodrigo Soto, MD (Clinical Educator and Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon, US)

Will Shu, PhD (Bioengineer and Technical Expert, OrganLike Ltd, UK)

Erin Brenner, RNFA, MSN (Clinical Educator and Cardiac First Assist, US)

Tyler Wallen, DO (Cardiac Surgeon, US) 

Henrik Brun (Pediatric Cardiologist and Technical Developer, Norway) 

Alan O’Donnell, PA-C (Clinical Educator and Physician Assistant, US) 

Owen Robinson (Executive director, NGO-Haiti Cardiac Alliance, US)

Clinician and Surgeons from LMIC who may benefit from our project.