Foxpat: Revolutionizing Surgical Training

Introducing Nitin Gurram's Award-Winning Surgical Trainer

Research indicates that it takes approximately 25 surgeries for novice surgeons to become proficient at knee replacement surgery. This statistic underscores the importance of not only designing efficient and ergonomic surgical tools but also creating an excellent learning platform. Foxpat is a response to this need, providing a platform where surgeons can make mistakes without causing harm to patients and gain crucial surgical skills.

Foxpat is a physical simulator of a patient's knee, integrated with sensors to provide feedback on operational performance. Unlike existing digital simulators, Foxpat offers a more realistic and hands-on experience. It incorporates all four stages of Kolb's experiential learning cycle: feel, observe, learn, and experiment. Surgeons can use actual tools that are used in the operating room to practice independently without needing an assistant to hold the knee.

The product consists of polyurethane bones, a 3D scanned knee anatomy, an aluminum structural frame, and a wireless surgical mallet. The lower leg is made up of ABS plastic, and the upper knee joint is vacuum cast with silicone of shore hardness 0030. The PU bones are vacuum casted for 320gm/cc density to simulate a realistic bone density. The low production volume of 50 pieces per year allows for the production of most of the plastic and aluminum parts through CNC milling.

The project, which started in March 2019 in Delft, The Netherlands, and finished in August 2019, was a collaboration between Zimmer Biomet and Delft University of Technology. The research took place in two hospitals in Oxford, where the surgical technique was invented. The outcome of this project was expected to support Oxford training courses that take place across the world to train novice surgeons on surgical techniques.

Creating a realistic training model that simulates the ergonomics of an actual operation presented several challenges. Orthopedic surgeries involve invasive processes like cutting, milling, and hammering. Additionally, there is no standardized validation procedure to provide feedback to the surgeons. Several studies have suggested that the hammer impact is a crucial element for positive results. Therefore, the impact force is recorded through a wireless surgical mallet to provide feedback to the user on an LED impact scale.

With Foxpat, surgeons can practice multiple times before operating on a real patient. It provides a safe and realistic environment where surgeons are allowed to use actual tools that are used in the operating room and make mistakes to learn without harming a patient. This innovative design is a significant step forward in medical training, promising to improve surgical outcomes and patient safety.