A new paradigm in distance surgical education. A promising solution for a surgeon’s daily challenges

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On May 4, 2021

In Surgical education

India is a country with a population of nearly 1.3 billion people. India has a very low doctor-to-patient ratio and it becomes more abysmal when we consider the surgeon-to-patient ratio.

We also have to remember that India has a huge disparity in terms of standards of living, the kind of facilities available in metro, towns, rural areas. The population in a rural area can be considered lucky if they have a local surgeon in a 50-100 km radius. The problem is this surgeon is in most cases a general surgeon and hence getting treatment for specific issues that require Ortho, Neuro, ENT or even Dental surgeons becomes a challenge. This skewed ratio has put tremendous pressure on healthcare service delivery in our country. Patients in smaller towns and rural areas can expect to get treatment only for limited diseases as could be managed by the local surgeon. When a patient with an advanced disease diagnosis approaches the local surgeon (if one is available), he is advised to go to the nearest city to a tertiary care hospital. This is true not only for patients from small towns or rural areas but also in the cities and metros approaching a surgeon in a small nursing home. This results in the tertiary care hospitals overflowing with patients which in turn means very minimal time that can be given to each patient.

This problem is being solved to an extent through surgical conferences and workshops and also through some courses offered by surgery training institutes. The statutory requirement of collecting credit points through CME’s approved by the state or the national council does help in a limited way by ensuring some knowledge dissemination to the medical professionals. But one can’t overlook the fact that surgery is a matter of skill and dexterity and just watching some videos will not improve the surgical skills. The ability of the surgeon to wield all the surgical instruments with consummate ease, having fine control, being able to maneuver the anatomy and the tissue in question, even in the most challenging cases will decide the outcomes of a surgical procedure.

India is in dire need of a large number of skilled surgeons and hence it becomes imperative to have in place a system of education that is convenient, effective, safe, scalable and progressive. Let’s look at why these are the necessary and sufficient properties and how each of these would shape the outcome of a surgery training course.

Convenient:

A training course at any surgery training institute requires a physical presence of the surgeon for a minimum of 3-5 days. For outstation candidates, it means an additional cost of travel and stay. An even bigger cost is losing out on a week of clinical practice and surgeries. The last one is not just a financial impact for the surgeon but it also impacts all patients who are dependent on the only surgeon available to them locally. A training course that can be arranged within a 50 km radius would mean that the surgeon can operate in the mornings, travel to the training center for hands-on skills practice and get back to the hospital for the OPD/rounds by evening. If a skills center is not available at a quickly accessible location, then the learner should have an option to practice the skills locally at the hospital or any place for that matter. Surgery training courses will be accepted by the surgeons only if it takes into account the real problems of the surgeon.

To ensure improvement in surgical training courses, the theory can be disseminated through online mediums but it is imperative that we need to consider the availability of hands-on training centers in every district. Online training coupled with local skill centers will be the most convenient and inspiring opportunity that we can offer the surgeons.

Effective:

If a surgery training course does not guarantee a tangible change in the understanding and skill levels of the surgeon, it is a pure waste of time and money. Any course that is being conducted should be done with the objective of taking the surgeon to a higher level of knowledge and skill. The courses that last for less than a week just bombard and overwhelm the learner with information, offer very little chance to practice the hands-on exercises and result in a very small percentage of learners who have the confidence to handle cases using the newly taught concepts and techniques.

An effective surgery training course needs to have a structure and process that hand holds the surgeon till the time the surgeon reaches a higher level of skill. Confidence building in the learner can be achieved through regular mentoring and skill evaluation processes. With the use of technology this can be done remotely and at the convenience of the mentor and mentee.

Safe:

There are 2 critical factors for ensuring safe outcomes from a surgery – deep understanding of the surgical anatomy and dexterity in handling the surgical instruments while doing surgical steps such as dissection, knotting and suturing. Understanding of surgical anatomy can be done by watching surgery videos, assisting senior surgeons in surgery and through many other ways. However, surgical dexterity can be achieved only by continuous practice. The problem is a surgeon cannot afford to develop this skill by practicing on live patients. Training on cadavers has been an approved and safe way to practice. Nowadays, non-cadaveric surgical models are available that give the surgeon a real-life experience of surgery.

A surgical training course should have exercises that can be done on tissues, cadavers or models. If the faculty can guide the learner on developing some models on their own, it can help the learner practice the surgical skills at will in a safe way and that too at a fraction of the cost.

Scalable:

There are only a handful good surgery training institutes in our country today. An effective training course requires good faculty to give time to observe the learners, handhold them and mentor them when they practice their skills. In a surgery training institute, there is a limitation on the number of learners that can be accommodated and hence the faculty requirement is also limited. In some other cases, the institute limits the number of learners due to unavailability of good faculty.

To ensure a course that is scalable, we need to ensure that a substantial number of good faculty is available all the time and the delivery mechanism should also be able to accommodate a large number of simultaneous learners. This is possible only in a distance learning course as the faculty can deliver the course from anywhere. Given an option and resources, the institute can onboard faculty from anywhere in the world. Since the course is being delivered online and not restricted by space constraints, a large number of learners can be enrolled for the course.

Scalability is an important factor as it will take the country’s healthcare service to the next level in a short period.

Progressive:

As is the case with any other profession, there is a certain growth path that a surgeon can follow. Let’s take an example of laparoscopic surgery. A novice practitioner of laparoscopic surgery will typically attempt to do a couple of surgical procedures like laparoscopic cholecystectomy and laparoscopic appendicectomy. The most common next milestone is to start doing laparoscopic hernia repair and then move further into onco surgeries. Generally, a surgeon after a few years of practice with a certain set of procedures wishes to move to the next level of skill and for this, needs to undergo some formal training at a surgical training institute. Medicine and surgery has reached such fine levels of super specialization that a surgeon will need to invest a lot of time attending courses to achieve the next milestone of surgical skill.

Surgical courses delivered through the distance learning mechanism can speed up this process as the surgeon can move from one level to the next at his own convenience. Also, as seen earlier since the distance learning mode of surgical training is much more cost-effective for the surgeon, there is a better chance that the surgeon will adopt continuous learning as a way of life and keep improving his surgical skills in length (types of procedures) and breadth (skill level to do complicated cases in each type of procedure).

DISSECT – Distance Surgical Education and Capability Training is an online surgical education platform that addresses the 5 requirements mentioned earlier. It is essentially structured as a 3-phase course with a Pre-course phase that builds awareness in the learner, a hand-on phase that focuses on building hands-on skills and dexterity and the most important Post-course phase that gives confidence to the learner through continuous hand-holding, live tele-mentoring and objective skill evaluation that precisely identifies the shortcomings in the learner and helps in focused learning and improvement.
Learn more at- www.dissect.live 

5 for the price of 1: The one proven methodology to address the 5 needs of medical device manufacturers

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On July 12, 2019

In Medical Devices

A manufacturer goes through a full cycle of doing market research for a new product, the R&D to build a prototype, an MVP for the market before getting a full-fledged product out for the customers. However, the greatest challenge that the manufacturer has, is to find customers willing to pay for the product. This is when the gruelling cycles of marketing and sales begin.

Typically, what every manufacturer wants is this –

  1. Improve his reach to potential customers
  2. Convey lucidly the differentiators of the product – how it is better than the competition
  3. Create a brand out of the product
  4. Ensure a continuous connect with the customer
  5. Generate quality leads that can be converted into tangible orders.

Is this any different in the case of medical device manufacturers? As a matter of fact, it could be more challenging and more intense given the intellectual and finicky end user that they have and the fact that all these products deal with human life in some way or the other. Experience has shown that the one mechanism that the surgeon fraternity responds to is “education”. Continuous medical education or CME as it is popularly known is not just a statutory requirement for the surgeons to maintain their credit scores but it is the only way and means through which they can stay current in a profession that expects them to always deliver immaculately. For this to happen, every surgeon is always looking for ways and means to

  • Understand every relevant surgical procedure
  • Understand the use of instruments in surgical procedures
  • Learn about new procedures
  • Update knowledge on new instruments

A medical device manufacturer is perfectly equipped to address all these requirements. They have a strong relationship with KOL’s and influencers of the field who can conduct a CME on their behalf. Typically, the medical device manufacturer conducts CME’s with experts from different specialities or different geographies. For a manufacturer with a wide portfolio of products, this would mean that they would have to conduct hundreds of CME’s with different KOL’s and for different geographies. This implies the need for a massive budget given the cost of the KOL, the venue which is typically a 5-star hotel, accommodation, food, travel and much more. How many potential customers can be served this way – typically around 50 to 100. Someone with deeper pockets will probably accommodate 200.

However, these traditional CME’s are an expensive option and hence it is difficult for any manufacturer to keep on sponsoring them in numbers and expect to reach a large potential customer base. Instead, eCME’s (online CME’s) have a TCO that is not just reasonable and affordable but it also guarantees a bigger reach as compared to the traditional CME’s. To add to this, if the eCME platform offers ways and means to generate quality leads then it would be the icing on the cake as it would address all the 5 needs of the manufacturer.

Meditorch Technologies has developed an excellent technology platform that has been used effectively by leading medical device manufacturers and there are many more who are seeing value in doing their CME’s. The platform comes with patent-pending technology and has features that have been developed after interacting with thousands of surgeons and dozens of senior executives from the medical device industry.

In the next part of this blog, we will look at how medical device manufacturers can conduct an eCME with maximum ROI using the Meditorch surgery training and mentoring platform.

The one secret ingredient that can boost market share of medical device manufacturers

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On July 3, 2019

In Medical Devices

Whether you are an established player or an aspirant wanting to get into the booming medical devices business in India, the thought of improving your market share has never left you for one moment. As a matter of fact, with intense competition and pricing challenges, established players are now more worried about maintaining their market share.

The marketing and advertising industry have been taken by a storm since companies like Facebook and Google made an appearance. However, medical devices are serious business and neither Facebook nor Google can be the relevant platforms for product promotions and advertising for this domain. With Facebook carrying an impression of casual social networking and Google being used more for search, serious businesses such as the medical device manufacturers have been found wanting for an appropriate vehicle to effectively deliver their product information to an equally serious clientele – the doctors.

There is one avenue that the medical device manufacturers have used for a long time albeit ineffectively or should I rather say – insufficiently, and that is education. Almost all the major players have budgets allocated every year to sponsor CME’s. These CME’s done in the traditional manner have very limited mechanisms for tracking ROI, are expensive, are difficult to organize and almost impossible to scale. In such a situation it becomes critical to make use of cutting edge technology which can help in delivering the same services to a large customer base at a fraction of the cost.

Let’s take an example. A traditional CME requires a medical device manufacturer to spend on the venue, food, transportation, hotel stay for KOL’s and participants alike and also the standard expenses for engaging the KOL. With a finite budget, how many doctors can you cater to with such a CME? The answer will always be – a few tens (standard) to at the most. few hundreds (for companies with deep pockets).

Now consider this scenario, where a leading medical device manufacturer engaged a KOL for a CME, used cutting edge technology to deliver the CME, and this time instead of bringing the doctors to the venue, took the CME to the doctor – to his hospital, to his home or to his car. It really didn’t matter where the doctor was, the technology of today had the power to reach anywhere.

Let’s quickly analyse the situation.

Did the manufacturer lose out on anything? No, nothing at all.

What about leads that are usually generated at the venue? Well, technology had the features to present the manufacturer’s products and generate enquiries. The manufacturer managed to generate more leads than he could even imagine.

Did the manufacturer really manage to create economies of scale? Of course, for a fixed cost of the technology platform, the manufacturer now has the ability to reach not just customers of geography but the whole world. He was creating economies of a scale way beyond what was imagined possible in the past.

The example above is not a hypothetical case but a reality. More and more manufacturers have started using technology to reach the customers, deliver education and use the opportunity to educate the doctor on the products offered. It’s turning out to be convenient to all the stakeholders, the medical device manufacturer, the KOL and the end customer.

Meditorch Technologies offers one such platform – LapGuru that has become the go-to resource for medical device manufacturers for conducting their eCME’s. LapGuru has cutting edge features that have made it a favourite amongst surgeons and hence it is ubiquitous in the surgery education domain.

If you are a medical device manufacturer, you must use this modality and experience how it impacts your product promotion and education strategies.

Broadcasting Surgery – The technology already exists – all that’s required now is some enthusiasm!

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On December 12, 2018

In Digital Enhancement

Broadcasting Surgery – The technology already exists – all that’s required now is some enthusiasm!

Surgeons work right on the forefront of healthcare. Conducting life-changing and life-saving procedures, they are responsible for delivering essential interventions in acute, critical and emergency care. In the current digital era, the viewing of live surgery is considered to be an essential part of surgical training both, for open and laparoscopic surgeries. Also, this methodology can revolutionize surgical education and training, particularly for developing countries that don’t have the resources and facilities.

The idea of broadcasting live surgery has been around for several years. However, it’s been largely limited to uses such as add-ons to conferences. Because they haven’t been done so regularly, broadcasts tend to be expensive, time consuming, of variable quality and limited availability.

The phenomenal advances made in audio-visual technologies and high-speed telecommunication systems in the recent years have provided surgeons with unique opportunities. Video streaming and bandwidth availability, combined with the installation of camera systems within operating rooms have literally taken the operation theaters to the classrooms. The unique and unparalleled view of an operation means trainee surgeons know better what to expect when they go in to the operating theatre.

Why ‘Live Broadcast’?

Experience is critical

Surgical procedures can range from the routine and straightforward to the highly complex and specialized. Broadcasted surgeries are of expert practitioners and seasoned surgeons who have pioneered a particular technique and may in some cases be the only person in the world offering it. Broadcasting a surgery permits “virtual” access to the operating room for those who can’t physically be there. It also enables non-specialist surgeons in remote areas to access the expertise of more specialist surgeons in major centers. Advice can be sought from an expert not just in another city but also another country, offering guidance on every step to be taken.

Development of competence

The adage “See one, do one, teach one” is familiar to surgical trainees. Training new surgeons is extremely critically to healthcare in every aspect. Thanks to technology, expert surgeons do not have to travel to lecture or teach, they can do so remotely. It creates the opportunity for potentially thousands of trainee surgeons worldwide to gain the benefit of watching a specialist perform and talk through a single procedure, greatly increasing the flow of knowledge. And it gives the learners the excitement of being able to learn from the best surgeons in the world, in wide variety of disciplines.

Crisis management

Broadcasting facilitates continuing education and is useful when surgeons encounter a rare condition or procedure. The videos are archived so if a surgeon in another part of the world finds himself/ herself in a similar situation, they can search for the relevant technique. All that’s needed is a working internet connection or access to a mobile phone network. The videos can also be viewed on all mobile devices, such as iPads and smart phones.

 

 

 

Healthcare in India – The Great Rural and Urban Divide

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On October 22, 2018

In Digital Enhancement

India is the second most populated country in the world with almost a fifth of the world’s population residing here. Its changing socio-political-demographic and morbidity patterns have been drawing global attention in recent years. In spite of several growth-orientated policies adopted by the government, the ever widening economic, regional and gender disparities are posing challenges for the health sector. According to a report by the United Nations, close to 75% of health related infrastructure, medical manpower and other health resources are concentrated in only urban areas where 27% of the population resides, leaving the poorest of the population in rural areas to face a variety of access barriers. The health status of rural Indians, is still a cause for grave concern.

Ideally, everyone should be able to conveniently and confidently access services such as primary care, dental care, behavioural health, emergency care, and public health services. According to a UN report, access to healthcare is important for:

  • Overall physical, social, and mental health status
  • Prevention of disease
  • Detection and treatment of illnesses
  • Quality of life
  • Preventable death
  • Life expectancy

However, taking into consideration the present scenario, Indian rural health care faces a crisis unmatched in any other social sector. Nearly 86% of the entire medical visits to urban hospitals in India are made by rural population with majority still travelling more than 100 km to avail health care facilities. 70-80% of such expense is borne out of pocket, which more often than not lands them in poverty.

This lack of access to healthcare affects population health and patient well-being in the long run. As patients have to travel long distances for specialized treatment, they may decide to postpone or forego care from a specialist due to the burdens of cost and long travel times. These unmet healthcare needs may include preventive and screening services, proper treatment of illnesses etc., which can have long-term consequences or even prove fatal.

Health literacy impacts a patient’s ability to understand health information and instructions from their healthcare providers. This is also a huge barrier to accessing healthcare in rural communities, where lower educational levels and higher incidents of poverty often impact the population.

Though the existing infrastructural setup for providing health care in rural India is on a right path, yet both the quality and quantity of support that’s available for primary health care facilities is far less than what is defined by the World Health Organization as acceptable.

This can be managed with focusing on skill up gradation and capacity development of the current health facilities in rural areas. The disparities between rural & urban areas to access health care services are alarming. We can dream of healthy India only when the rural health is taken care of. India spends a measly 1.2% of its GDP on the healthcare sector. In comparison, almost 21% of USA’s GDP is spent on the healthcare sector alone. There is an urgent need to meet the challenges of non-availability of quality health services in remote rural regions. There is an immediate requirement to transform the current health care system into an accountable, accessible and affordable system of quality services. There are plenty of programs and policies run by the government for promoting a healthy infrastructure that’s designed to provide access to medical facilities for every individual. However, there still exists a lacuna when it comes to procedures and new practices, which inhibits updated healthcare practices to reach the rural parts of India.

Rural healthcare is in such shambles because no doctors or their families can live in the rural areas with absolutely zero social infrastructures. Also, Doctors in rural areas have no or limited access to continuing medical education (CME) opportunities.

As people in rural areas don’t have enough means to travel long distances and take preventive health care from urban areas, healthcare sector is now using telemedicine solutions to increase the reach of its services to such population. Telemedicine improves access to rural patients along with allowing physicians and health facilities to expand their reach, beyond their own offices. The astounding developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) particularly the web-based technologies have opened up exciting new possibilities for health care across the world. These developments have significantly improved access to healthcare in remote and rural areas. 

The real challenge for the country is to reach 100% access to quality health care.

 

 

An App that Fills the Gap in Laparoscopic Surgery Training and Education

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On April 30, 2018

In App

The use of mobile devices has become increasingly popular in almost every aspect of life. Whether it is for communication, education, or recreation, they are progressively being seen as complimenting – if not replacing – the age-old personal computer. However, mobile devices are not limited to the personal space. We have now seen their emerging use in healthcare, which comprises of diverse issues to solve clinical problems and surgical education. Expanding access to the latest medical research at the point-of-care to communicating with surgeons globally in real time, surgery is now practiced in a technological era. We found that 94 % of Indian laparoscopic surgery trainees own a smartphone, with 61 % owning an iPhone. 89 % of trainees questioned had downloaded medical apps and used them regularly during clinical activities.

As mobile communications and related apps thrive, it is essential for surgeons to remain well informed. The emerging use of apps and mobile technologies in the healthcare setting has the potential to improve patient safety and reduce the alarming trend of rising medical error rates. Sometimes, finding apps that are relevant and useful can be a challenge. However, with LapGuru app that’s now available on the app store, this hurdle has largely been overcome. LapGuru app is designed to assist in point-of-care decisions, medical education and surgical training for Laparoscopic surgeons. While years of medical school are intended to prepare doctors for the operating room, the benefits of shared information and insights from seniors and colleagues working in the real world can’t be ignored. LapGuru app helps surgeons leverage this shared knowledge in multiple ways. Updates occur daily to provide the latest and most relevant information to the users.

LapGuru app currently features more than 2500 live surgery videos. Surgeons and their residents can refresh their knowledge of operative anatomy when preparing for procedures. It puts instant updates at surgeons’ fingertips when reference books may not be practical. For example, if you want to learn lap chole, there are more than 300 videos that probably show you all the possible variations that you will typically encounter in a lap chole. It applies to hernia, bariatric or any other procedure as well. It offers opportunities for surgeons to support preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative care. For trainees, this app is vital to satisfy surgical training requirements and may assist surgeons with documentation for practice purposes. Surgeons can also comment and ask questions while a live surgery transmission. They can also watch CME conferences live via the app.

There is ample opportunity for technology to advance healthcare on multiple levels. Empowering surgeons with the right tools allows them to play a more proactive role in patient care as they can have access to wider medical knowledge. As the next generation of technology-oriented laparoscopic surgeons progress through training and begin practicing, it appears inevitable that LapGuru app popularity and desirability will only grow.  LapGuru app will help improve surgical performance and safety, thus increasing the quality of medical care.

 

 

 

Experience Healthcare Simplicity

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On April 18, 2018

In Digital Enhancement

Digital Technology has surfaced as the real force behind the transformation of India, and interventions using technology have transformed several industries, including banking, telecom, transportation, taxation etc. but healthcare continues to lag behind other industries in using technology with patients and doctors. Today, discoveries in medical science, advances in medical technologies, and enhancements in clinical practices are occurring at an increasingly rapid rate. Yet because of a fragmented healthcare delivery system, many patients are unable to benefit from these developments. It’s time we use technology as a force to drive major improvements in healthcare. At Meditorch Technologies, we have designed a platform called LapGuru that can help in achieving the 3 As of healthcare: accessibility, affordability and availability in Laparoscopic surgery through education, training and practice.

Healthcare suffers from the unintended consequences of continued prevalence of medical laxity. What happens at times is that the very solutions that were implemented to solve specific issues become the basis for further unanticipated problems. For example, a laparoscopic surgeon has to upgrade his knowledge and skill on a regular basis. In order to achieve excellence in his profession, he is required to enroll in various professional courses which could also mean that he may have to leave practice for a while to travel to a certain place to do a certain course. And if he has to manage so many things before he could join a course, he would probably think not to join it at all. So, these courses will have less participation, which is detrimental to the medical education system. But with LapGuru, there is no such challenge. Laparoscopic doctors can get access to the latest developments in laparoscopic surgeries at the click of a button. The benefits of enhanced knowledge and skill are transferred to the patient through better outcomes.

There is enormous potential for digital technology to improve many aspects of how we look at healthcare training and outcome. Digital learning and training tools have a definite role to play in not just training more doctors and enhancing their skills, but also enable them to deliver superior care to their patients. Prospects for using mobile technology have improved significantly in the last few years with the increase in the number of smartphone and tablet users. LapGuru platform and app enables the doctors to use digital technology to research information online, share experiences and identify treatment options, anytime, anywhere.

The increase in capability and decrease in costs of the technology means that financial barriers are becoming less of a concern. For example, medical seminars and conferences are considered an important learning tool for doctors. Many doctors, especially in rural areas can’t attend them just because they can’t afford the high expenses, i.e. spend a lot of money on travel and accommodation beside the regular fees for attending the seminar or conference. This is especially true for the doctors in developing countries. But with live video conferencing, LapGuru has provided a perfect solution. Doctors can watch the conferences at their own convenience from anywhere.

‘Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler,’ said Albert Einstein. Technology is the harbinger of both, tremendous forces for change and tremendous opportunities for transformation. At LapGuru, we have been fairly successful in making use of technology to bring about a change in how laparoscopic surgery education is imparted to bring a transformation in patient care.

 

Digital Learning for Laparoscopic Surgeons

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On March 26, 2018

In App, Digital Enhancement

As a Doctor, you are destined to lifelong learning because even what’s considered a “best practice” in the profession can change drastically in a short span of time. Continuous exposure is important if you want to keep up with medical progress. Up to date knowledge and skill can ensure a high quality of patient care. Online training is an effective and cost-efficient resource in any field, but in the hands of health professionals like you, it has the power to save lives and significantly improve quality of care.

It is often said that expansion of the Internet is comparable with the significance of Gutenberg’s discovery of printing technology. While printing accelerated manipulation of information stored by then in the form of hand-written texts, the Internet enormously accelerated information manipulation by applying the today’s electronic technology.

Welcome to LapGuru, an advanced, flexible training and learning platform that provides Laparoscopic training videos for surgeons in a highly engaging manner right on any desktop, laptop or device. Applying the latest information technologies to laparoscopic surgery education, LapGuru takes advantage of the increasing availability of Internet access (using optical fibres, Wi-Fi and 3G/4G mobile phone technology).

The delivery advantages of LapGuru as an online platform are easily recognized: low costs, widespread distribution, increased accessibility to information, frequent content updates, and personalized instruction in terms of content and pace of learning are some of the most cited benefits of LapGuru.

On Demand & Highly Accessible

Learn at your own pace and availability, at work, at home, on the train or anywhere with an internet connection

Ground-breaking Learning Packages

One small fee for a wealth of subject-specific videos to allow you to develop true depth in vital topics without worrying about the additional cost

Turn your Expertise into Learning for Others

Are you an expert laparoscopic surgeon? The LapGuru platform can help you share your expertise with hundreds of aspiring surgeons by transmitting your surgeries live.

Visual understanding is something especially important in the laparoscopic surgery field. Images and figures play an extremely important role (consider anatomy, organ structure, port positions, equipment handling, where visual understanding is absolutely necessary.

LapGuru has a video library of 2500+ laparoscopic surgery videos that can help you to improve your clinical and professional competencies. For example, if you want to learn lap chole, there are more than 300 videos that probably show you all the possible variations that you will typically encounter in a lap chole procedure. It applies to Hernia, Bariatric or any other procedure as well. The nuances of any surgical procedure can be learnt only when you watch more and more surgeries and variations in the pathology, LapGuru helps you achieve that.

Get ready for more effective, engaging, innovative learning experiences specifically for laparoscopic surgeons. Subscribe now!

Performing laparoscopic surgeries in rural areas with LapGuru

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On March 15, 2018

In Surgical education

Teaching and training methods for Laparoscopic surgeries have evolved considerably since it was first introduced in late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Most of the learning in those days was limited to short-term courses that were largely centred in big cities, followed by quick implementation in the operation theatre. This unstructured approach sometimes resulted in major threats to patient safety and undesired outcomes for the surgical process undertaken. There was a huge lacuna that existed in training laparoscopic surgeons, more so in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

For example:  In rural areas, due to limited resources available, women usually come very late to health care facility and desire a permanent cure for their disease. Till sometime ago, the newer and lesser radical treatment options for gynecological conditions like laparoscopic hysterectomy was not available in remote areas. A number of minimally invasive surgical options for hysterectomy do exist now and are promising like endometrial ablation, thermal balloon therapy and uterine artery embolization. However, there exists a need to train more and more surgeons on these procedures so that they can be widely used.

When compared with open surgeries, laparoscopy is somewhat difficult to both, learn and train. For example, during open procedures the operating surgeon can teach a learner in a direct fashion whereas in a laparoscopic surgery the operating surgeon is simultaneously teaching while retracting a tissue or driving a camera. Surgeons need distinctive skills sets to perform laparoscopic surgery efficiently and accurately. It uses specialized equipment and the surgeons must be familiar with the workings of devices such as suction irrigators, clip appliers, staplers etc. While the cognitive skills can be accurately disseminated via traditional methods, learning the technical skills for laparoscopic surgeries requires a more structured approach.

In a first, LapGuru, an online surgical training platform for laparoscopic surgeons, has launched online live surgical videos to train rural doctors in small towns and far-flung areas to help augment their laparoscopic skills. The ideology behind the platform is that there are lakhs of doctors who may not have the time to attend physical conferences, continued medical education programs as they are busy working in rural or tier two cities. Distance, time and sometimes expenses become a major hindrance in pursuit of excellence for them. LapGuru can help save many precious lives and improve quality of life of many more by improving skills of the doctors attending to them.

Advanced medical care is often unavailable to patients in remote, rural areas. LapGuru has become an effective method of teaching the local doctors practical and cost-effective new methods in Laparoscopic surgeries. It broadcasts live surgeries for doctors in rural settings to learn from some of the world’s top laparoscopic experts.

“LapGuru is an excellent platform to view surgical videos in various disciplines. The high quality videos contain step-by-step procedures, checkpoints and are supplemented with the instrument list for each procedure. Watching the LapCole videos on LapGuru has helped me to come up with alternative approaches to complications encountered during surgery. I have also been able to save a lot of time as the videos have helped to cut down on unnecessary things during procedures. I am thoroughly impressed and fascinated by the value it provides to seasoned surgeons along with those who may be interested in pursuing a career in surgery.” Says Dr. Subhadeep Tripathy who is practicing laparoscopic surgeon in rural Maharashtra.

 Many medical facilities in rural areas are not equipped with the latest technologies to train staff on latest up to date advancements and medical information to run a more efficient healthcare practice. Having access to materials such as a library of live surgery videos that demonstrate the correct way to perform tasks and error avoidance strategies can be very helpful to bring world-class expertise into rural operating theatres.

 For example, in Satara one hundred eight patients have undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy; there have been no deaths; 2 cases were converted to open procedures; no common bile duct injuries, postoperative complications, or long-term complications.

While there is a growing issue with a shortage of doctors, rural healthcare facilities can utilize programs and modern technologies to improve the care provided to patients. And leveraging LapGuru can help train the medical staff in real-time from leading experts across the globe. LapGuru has a library of over 2500+ live surgery broadcasts in which surgeons have performed various procedures like General, Bariatric, Colorectal, Urologic and Gynecologic surgery in real-time, and have taken questions over a video stream. Viewers only need a standard web browser on a computer, a laptop or mobile device to join in and watch. The surgeons can watch a re-run of the surgeries at their own convenience a number of times to master both the nuances of procedure as well as handling of the equipment used.

Accelerate access to better Markets with LapGuru

By

On February 6, 2018

In Equipment in Surgery

Laparoscopic surgery represents one of the largest medical segments with about 8 million surgeries performed annually worldwide. With all its advantages such as quicker recovery, shorter hospital stay and a far superior aesthetic results, the concept of minimally invasive approach, has been gaining more and more followers amongst the surgical community. The equipment and instruments for performing these minimally access procedures have, over the years, greatly improved. Following the surgeons’ demands, the increasing investment and research on better tools have provided more sophisticated and efficient equipment that offers lower risk and thus higher safety to patients opting for these procedures.

The type and quality of surgical instruments available play a part in ensuring the best potential outcomes of a procedure. Although the basic notions of cutting, coagulating and sewing remain, the variety of tools available to perform these tasks has increased significantly. Surgeries that once required a long incision and the opening up of a large surface area can now be completed with smaller incisions and the use of cameras.

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