Surgical Skills Lab

Through generous donations made by U.S. Surgical and Memorial Medical Center, the SIU/U.S. Surgical Skills and Research Lab opened its doors in May 2000. One of only a handful of centers across the country designed specifically for training surgical residents, it will supplement the traditional training SIU surgery residents receive when they learn procedures in the operating room, working alongside full time faculty and the community's surgeons. Janet Ketchum was hired to be the Surgical Skills Lab Coordinator / Skills Coach and Jenny Bartlett joined as Surgical Skills Lab Specialist. "With advancing technologies, the cost of the operating room has made the methodical, high quality teaching with a patient present increasingly more difficult and expensive," said Dr. Gary Dunnington, SIU's professor and chairman of Surgery. "Airlines have been doing this kind of training for years. Pilots often spend hundreds of hours in front of a flight simulator before ever making their first flight and now our residents will have a similar experience, using a high tech model of a human torso, abdomen, or hand."

Dr. Dunnington added he is very pleased with the cooperation he has received in the creation of this facility. "It wouldn't have been possible without sizable contributions from Memorial Medical Center who provided the space and all the basic elements including workstations and computers. U.S. Surgical provided a grant of over $500,000 which is being used to hire staff and pay for supplies, models and other training materials. U.S. Surgical has always supported surgical training and research at major academic medical centers like SIU." In addition, the Linvatec Corporation also donated over $250,000 in video and endoscopic equipment to help hone the skills of tomorrow's surgeons in endoscopic surgery.

Since September 2000, all 20 of the school's first-year surgical residents began using a new curriculum to prepare them for their experiences in the operating room. In addition to general surgery, residents from other surgery specialties will use the lab, including orthopaedics, otolaryngology, plastics and urology.

Primary care residents and third-year medical students from SIU will learn basic surgical skills like suturing and knot tying at the center as well. Surgical supply companies will set up their equipment and have their personnel provide training in new technology for residents, faculty and the community's practicing surgeons in this "dry lab" setting.
This high-tech center also allows for live video feeds from Memorial Medical Center's main operating rooms or the Carbondale campus. There will be a strong emphasis on laparoscopy or minimally invasive surgery, rapidly growing technology used by nearly all surgical specialties.

The School of Medicine has 54 residents currently training in Springfield in five surgical residencies - general, orthopaedics, plastics, otolaryngology and urology. Each program is five to six years in length. They are based at both Memorial Medical Center and St. John's Hospital and are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Special Announcement

The Department of Surgery's Surgical Skills Laboratory was recently awarded accreditation for the term of three years from the American College of Surgeons' Program for Accreditation of Education Institutes. They were one of 17 labs to receive this accreditation. This decision was made following a comprehensive evaluation of the program, which included review of the application submitted by SIU, as well as a review of the site surveyor's report and careful deliberation by the ACS Accreditation Review Committee. In the summary it stated, "The Surgical Skills Laboratory facility is very impressive and has an excellent program." Congratulations to Drs. John Sutyak and Gary Dunnington, Reed Williams and coordinators Janet Ketchum and Jennifer Bartlett.

2nd Surgical Skills Lab Workshop

Save the Date: 2nd Surgical Skills Lab Training Workshop: Some Assembly Required April 3-4, 2008 Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIUSOM) will offer a workshop, The Surgical Skills Lab Training Workshop: Some Assembly Required, on April 3-4, 2008 at its Springfield, Illinois campus for the second time.
The intended audience includes Directors and Coordinators of Surgical Skills Training Laboratories and other physicians, nurses and medical education professionals interested in the science and art of surgical skills training. The registration application can be downloaded by right clicking here and selecting 'save target as'. Firefox users use right click and "Save Link As". They can be returned by fax or mail. Registration questions may be directed to Susan Helm at 217-545-7012.