'Smart' gloves promise to put surgery into safest hands

SYDNEY－Australian researchers are creating electronic "smart" gloves which should ultimately enable leading surgeons to pass on their hard-earned dexterous skills to trainees.

Biomedical engineer Gough Lui, from the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University, said on Thursday that the flexible and unobtrusive gloves contain minute electronics to record the subtle, fast and controlled hand movements of experienced surgeons.

Then, when worn by trainees, the gloves collect motion data, including the tiniest of jitters, which is relayed to a screen, to see where the students' hand movements differ from their teachers.

The motivation behind the gloves was a conversation about four years ago between Lui and Les Bokey, one of Australia's most eminent surgeons and educators.

They realized that surgery was requiring an ever-growing range of skills to handle modern techniques such as keyhole surgery with cameras and robotic surgery, but teaching methods were not keeping pace.

Training generally remains the time-honored convention of the instructing surgeon standing over a student's shoulder to provide comments and advice during operation.

"Often, the surgeon might say, 'that wasn't very good', but can't concretely articulate what is wrong," Lui said. "That's very frustrating when you're trying to master a skill."

One recent training advance has been surgical simulators, but Lui said these elaborate devices are "hugely expensive" and are not always accessible to hospital trainees.

In contrast, Lui hopes the gloves will eventually be coupled with a smartphone app, so trainees will be able to practice tasks at home for as little as A$300($225).

So far, the prototype gloves have garnered keen interest among surgical trainees and their teachers at Liverpool Hospital in western Sydney.

Work continues on creating the perfect glove. The next stage for Lui and his team is to find the best way for the gloves to seamlessly provide guidance because the screen visualizations can be distracting for students concentrating on difficult tasks.

Lui said alternatives include "haptic" feedback such as a buzz to the fingertips, or some form of audio feedback.

The glove prototypes continue to be on trial at Liverpool Hospital with more refined versions to be tested later this year.

Xinhua