n response to this need for further orthopaedic training, the Orthopaedic Trauma Institute (OTI) has recently opened a Surgical Training Facility (STF) located on the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) campus. The STF is dedicated to the development and presentation of innovative medical, health, and science workshops. The facility opened in the fall of 2007 and consists of a six work-station simulated operating suite, state-of-the-art surgical, radiological, and digital communications equipment, and integrated conference rooms.
Since its opening, the STF has accommodated over 40 educational courses and technology development sessions, serving multiple departments, physician trainees, medical students, hospital staff, and other health care personnel from local, regional, national, and international centers. The lab has the capacity for live feed footage into the Institute conference room, at satellite locations across the SFGH campus, and, through internet connections, to anywhere in the world. For example, more than 450 health care providers and industry professionals attended the Third Annual Orthopaedic Trauma Course held in May of 2008. The Surgical Training Center was able to broadcast a live surgical dissection directly to the hotel thus enabling attendees to view surgeon-instructors provide hands-on instruction on the latest equipment and techniques related to fracture care and trauma surgery without needing to leave the downtown conference site 20 minutes from the hospital.
With bird’s-eye-view cameras, the STF allows for cadaveric clinical teaching and procedure-based research. Fluoroscopic images can be transmitted from three of the center’s stations. To allow students to learn within the lab, there is a flat-screen television for instructional videos and the facilitation of live, two-way training. The lab will provide a much needed location for procedure-based research in area such as computer-assisted surgery.
The focus of these new techniques and technologies is to be less invasive, for faster recovery, and the reduction of complications such as infection. The techniques use radiology and fluoroscopy to spare soft tissues on the bone. This telemedicine, the practice of medicine when the doctor and patient are widely separated using two-way voice and visual communication capability, has greatly enhanced the ability to expand training and educational programs. Additionally, courses and procedures can be recorded in high-definition quality and archived electronically.
