A criterion-referenced approach to assessing perioperative skills in a VR environment

The need for technical competence brought about by the advent of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has caused educators to re-evaluate the methods used to train surgeons and to judge their competence. Additionally, the extensive training required to become competent is an attendant problem. To help solve these problems, we have begun to develop a method for training and evaluating perioperative MIS surgical competency using an immersive virtual reality (VR) trainer for surgical preparation. This paper presents and summarizes the results of our pilot-test development of a criterion-referenced approach to evaluating performance. Because of the high degree of internal consistency of responses from master surgeons using our system, we have confidence that this approach is viable.