The 2022 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Surgical Simulation Summit, the annual meeting of the Consortium of ACS-Accredited Education Institutes (ACS-AEI), took place virtually on March 3–4. More than 190 individuals participated in a variety of cross-specialty collaborative sessions about the latest advances in simulation-based surgical education during this two day event.
One of the meeting highlights was a keynote address delivered by Kevin Weiss, MD, MPH, chief sponsoring institutions and clinical learning environments officer, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), entitled “Enhancing Clinical Learning Environments and Interprofessional Practice to Improve Operative and Procedural Patient Care.” Dr. Weiss’ address helped set the framework for the second joint meeting between the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Simulation Education Network (SEN) and the ACS-AEI program with respect to what both professional organizations can do together to promote collaboration and best practices and improve patient care and safety. It was an interactive session during which surgeons and anesthesiologists were assigned to breakout rooms to discuss specific topics with the goal of answering the following three questions:
- What are the challenges?
- How can anesthesiologists and surgeons work together to address the challenges?
- What can the ASA and the ACS do as professional organizations to encourage their members to support these efforts?
Discussion data points were collected and will be analyzed by a joint committee of ACS and ASA members to determine the next steps in the continuing evolution of the two organizations’ desire to work together for the betterment of all involved.
The Summit is committed to presenting the latest advances in simulation-based surgical education, and notably, 12 scientific papers and four innovative papers have been presented in the 2022 forum as emerging research. A number of the paper authors have been invited to submit their manuscripts to the journal Surgery for consideration of publication in an upcoming edition.
Another highlight at this year’s meeting was the session “ACS-AEI Fellows: Future Leaders in Simulation-Based Surgical Education.” This year, 13 Fellows presented on a wide range of topics related to simulation-based surgical education and training. One graduation requirement of the Fellowship program was presenting at the Summit on the Fellow’s current or completed research during the fellowship. This session was a great opportunity for Consortium members to see and connect with future leaders in the field of simulation-based surgical education.
Finally, the Administration and Management Committee of the ACS-AEI program offered two sessions within its popular MORE (Management, Operations, Research, and Education) track. The “Data Management and Solutions” session opened with identifying and defining the types of data that need to be collected by simulation centers within day-to-day operations to meet accreditation requirements, introduced three AEIs’ systems on data collection and storage methods―from “homegrown” solutions to commercial simulation center software programs―and suggested ways to visualize data collected.
The second MORE session, “Different Types of Surgical Curricula,” presented five AEIs’ approaches to developing a curriculum by describing the methods used during the design process to assess needs, overcome challenges, identify available resources, and determine the most appropriate evaluation tools for measuring the effectiveness of the curricula. Both sessions provided attendees with practical take-aways and lessons learned that may be applicable at their own AEIs.
We look forward to gathering together in person next year in Chicago, IL, March 2–4, for the 2023 Surgical Simulation Summit.
