ProMIS™ can serve as a da Vinci® simulator--a construct validity study.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to investigate if the ProMIS™ simulator could serve as a training platform for the da Vinci® surgical system and if this constellation could prove construct validity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The da Vinci system was connected to the ProMIS simulator, which registered objective data concerning how the surgeon performed in the box environment related to time, path, and smoothness. Five experienced robotic surgeons passed four different surgical tasks with progressive difficulty. A novice group-constituted of 13 consultants and 6 residents, none of them with any previous experience in the da Vinci system-passed the same tasks and the data were compared with the results from the expert group.

RESULTS

A statistically significant difference between experts and novices was demonstrated in all tasks concerning time and smoothness. For the parameter path, significant difference was only noted in the more complex tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study showed that ProMis could differentiate between experienced robotic surgeons and novices, thereby proving construct validity. Smoothness appeared to be the most sensitive objective parameter in our study. Tasks with high complexity are recommended when designing the program for robotic training.