The Global Surgical Training Challenge (GSTC) is an ongoing initiative that is funded by the Intuitive Foundation and run in partnership with Challenge Works, MIT Solve,the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Appropedia. The Challenge aims to make simulation-based surgical training accessible through low-cost, open-source training modules. These open-source modules help surgical practitioners to learn and assess new skills to improve the health of their communities.

The Challenge aims to create a paradigm shift in how surgical practitioners learn and assess surgical techniques. The validated modules will be free to download and inexpensive to reproduce in a variety of global settings. Each surgical simulation model is accompanied by a self-assessment framework, allowing surgical practitioners to test their newly acquired skills and all modules will be free to access right here on Appropedia.

The Challenge has supported the development of several training modules so anyone in the world can create and share new modules on Appropedia.

Announcing the winner of the Global Surgical Training Challenge


Explore the Modules[edit | edit source]

Teams of surgeons, educators and technologists have created modules to help surgical practitioners learn and assess specific skills. The following modules received funding and support to prototype their modules.

ALL-SAFE, AmoSmile, CrashSavers Trauma, and Tibial Fracture Fixation have been recognized by an expert judging panel as Finalist Award winners. After a year of refining and validating their training modules, four teams have been selected as Finalist Award winners. Each team will receive up to US$500,000 to further develop and validate their surgical training models. Additional modules participated in the Discovery Award phase of the Challenge.


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ALL-SAFE is an international collaboration of surgeons and scientists with the goal of teaching surgeons in the low-resource setting to perform laparoscopic surgery without special training equipment and without a physical teacher.

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The AMPATH Surgical App Curriculum is aimed at improving surgical care by focusing on open appendectomy, a common procedure for a potentially life-threatening condition. The course is designed to help medical doctors who have not completed formal surgical training to become confident and competent in performing an open appendectomy. The curriculum includes four core modules: case presentation, building the model, complete procedure practice, and self-assessment.

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Our goal is to provide a cost efficient simulation-training module, which enables you (the surgical trainee) an opportunity to learn, assess your progress, and gain surgical psychomotor skills without the presence of an instructor.

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This training module allows medical officers (non-specialist physicians) and general surgeons to become confident and competent in the gentle handling of delicate infant tissues as part of neonatal colostomy procedures performed in low to middle income countries (LMICs).

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CrashSavers Trauma is focused on teaching firefighter first responders in Guatemala how to stop bleeding in injured individuals and prevent mortality from hemorrhagic shock. Low- and middle-income countries lack an organized prehospital infrastructure. This, coupled with the absence of formal medical training for prehospital providers, creates suboptimal conditions for providers and patients. Improvement in provider competence and thus, patient safety, are at a standstill until formalized training in hemorrhage control techniques is provided.

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OpenSurgiSim is a surgical training system developed by AlgoSurg and Center for Limb Lengthening & Reconstruction for orthopaedic surgeons to learn all the steps of accurate correction of bone deformities.

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The ETALO project responds to the high prevalence of osteomyelitis and open fractures in low and middle-income countries, often caused by vehicular trauma and require early intervention to prevent complications. This module contains a low-cost simulator and training course for medical students, clinical officers, and non-orthopaedic surgeons to learn the basic surgical skills required to treat these conditions, including drilling bone.

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The GlobalSurgBox, the Universal Surgical Simulator that fits in a toolbox, is a surgical simulator that fits in a 12.5-inch toolbox, is capable of teaching trainees valuable surgical skills such as: knot tying, basic and advanced suturing, bowel and vascular anastomoses, aortic valve replacement, and numerous other new and emerging possibilities.

Tibial Fracture Fixation Team Logo.jpg

This module allows medical officers and surgeons who are not orthopedic specialists to become confident and competent in irrigation and debridement, powered and manual drilling, positioning and correctly inserting Schanz screws, and constructing the rod-to-rod modular frame as part of external fixation procedures for open humeral shaft fractures performed in regions without specialist coverage.

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Our surgical training modules aim to enable novice surgeons to become confident and competent in dissecting the Calot's triangle, as part of the Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy surgery performed in a simulated environment using Virtual and Augmented Reality (AR/VR).

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This module allows surgical practitioners to become more confident and competent in Orthoplastic reconstruction by removing contaminated debris and all devitalized tissue, stabilizing the skeleton and covering the soft tissue defect. This should reduce the bacterial burden and available substrate for microbial colonization, resulting in fewer deep surgical site infections.

Tibial Fracture Fixation Team Logo.jpg

This module allows traditional bone setters, pre-hospital providers, clinical officers, nurses, nurse practitioners, and medical officers to become confident and competent in performing point-of-care ultrasound diagnostic imaging to rule out the presence of a pediatric distal forearm fracture and distinguish between buckle (torus) fractures and cortical break fractures to make appropriate referrals as part of the management of closed pediatric (< 16 years of age) distal forearm fractures in regions without access to X-ray imaging and orthopedic specialist coverage.

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The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (STARS) - Cervical Cancer Screening and Treatment module allows nurses, midwives, clinical officers, and medical officers to become confident and competent in performing visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), and thermal ablation of cervical pre-cancer lesions as part of cervical cancer screening and treatment procedures performed in primary health care facilities and mobile units in resource-constrained settings.

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This STARS (Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights) - Intrauterine Device (IUD) Insertion module allows nurses, midwives and clinical officers to become confident and competent in maintaining aseptic technique in sounding the uterus, loading the IUD in the sterile package, setting the gauge to the sounded depth, and gently inserting and deploying the IUD as part of copper and hormonal IUD insertion procedures for long-acting reversible contraception services performed in low to middle income countries.

Tibial Fracture Fixation Team Logo.jpg

This module allows medical officers and surgeons who are not orthopedic specialists to become confident and competent in irrigation and debridement, powered and manual drilling, positioning and correctly inserting Schanz screws, and constructing the rod-to-rod modular frame as part of external fixation procedures for open tibial shaft fractures performed in regions without specialist coverage.

Tibial Fracture Fixation Team Logo.jpg

This module allows medical officers and surgeons who are not orthopedic specialists to become confident and competent in irrigation and debridement, powered and manual drilling, positioning and correctly inserting Schanz screws, and constructing the uniplanar external fixator frame as part of external fixation procedures for open tibial shaft fractures performed in regions without specialist coverage.

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The V-Y Advancement Flap training module will help surgeons become more confident and competent in using this technique for reconstructing small- to medium-cutaneous defects, mainly to release scars and closing defects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The module combines virtual and physical simulation to provide learners with knowledge and skills for clinical competency in V-Y advancement.

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The Z-plasty training module is an educational smartphone application designed to help learners understand the function and indications of Z-plasty, a random-pattern local flap used in reconstructive surgery. The module covers the principles of design, surgical techniques, and complications.

Create Your Own Module[edit | edit source]

Want to create your own training module to help surgical practitioners learn and assess new skills?

Begin by:

  • Creating and editing content on Appropedia
  • Designing an effective training module
  • Getting technical support
  • Adding special features to a module

For a more extensive walk through setting up an account and making your own banner, work through the GSTC/Getting Started exercises. However, if you already have an account and want to dive right in, you can make a GSTC page using with any of these templates. Simply type the name you want for the page in the Name field and click "Create". It will make you a new GSTC page with the basic formatting filled in. You can always modify the formatting later if you want to change the structure of the page, including adding your own banner across the top. You will be able to link to this new page using the name.

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Medical skills
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Knowledge pages
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Training modules
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Quiz
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Check the useful resources to help you create and document your simulation modules.

Discussion[View | Edit]

Use this page to ask any questions or to request support for the Global Surgical Training Challenge. Please check the GSTC Toolbox section for Appropedia, as well as Help:Getting started for any questions regarding editing and making skill pages. If you can't find what you're looking for, press the new ticket button below. Please add a signature to all messages (simply add —~~~~ at the end of your message).

New ticket

Accept .blend, .gcode and .3mf formats[edit source]

@Sophivorus, Maidandre Team User:Medical Makers is requesting these formats to be allowed. Is this possible? Thanks! —Emilio (talk) 23:20, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

@Emilio @Maidandre Done! Sophivorus (talk) 13:57, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

User Page: Updating Skills in User Data Box[edit source]

Greetings!

Medical Makers has created our User Page. However, we are unsure on how to update our skills and interests in relation to the GSTC in the User Data box. Can you please help us or direct us the resource that provides these instructions? Many thanks, Julielynn Chief Medical Makers —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Medical Makers, 3 July 2021, 13:30 (UTC)

Hi! No worries, you may add any skills and interests as you prefer, related or unrelated to the GSTC. If you have something specific that you'd like to share, you can do so on your user page. One thing to note is that the content you create will be automatically attributed to the "name" field on your user databox. —Emilio (talk) 18:35, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi, this is team <GSTC>[edit source]

About to make another page set—GSTC (talk) 20:26, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

Team ETALO[edit source]

Hi, this is team ETALO. —ETALO (talk) 08:40, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

AmoSmile[edit source]

Hi, this is team AmoSmile (formerly Team Operation Smile). —AmoSmile (talk) 20:26, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

Given the ongoing collaboration between Operation Smile and AmoDisc to bring this project/platform to reality, we have decided to proceed with the collaborative team name of AmoSmile.

CrashSavers[edit source]

Hi, this is team CrashSavers. —CrashSavers (talk) 20:41, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

ALL SAFE[edit source]

Hi, this is team <ALL_SAFE>. —ALL SAFE (talk) 23:12, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi, this is team SELF-Training[edit source]

Hi, this is team SELF-Training —The preceding comment was added by Self-training (talkcontribs) 08:52, 16 July 2021


ASAP: Ampath Surgical App[edit source]

Hi, this is team ASAP! —The preceding comment was added by ASAP (talkcontribs) 22:48, 18 July 2021


OpenSurgiSim[edit source]

Hi, this is team OpenSurgiSim. —Amitd (talk) 07:46, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

Images not uploading in Opensurgisim page[edit source]

Following error is displayed when uploading the image: Could not store upload in the stash (UploadStashFileException): "Could not store file "/tmp/php0Ge3Ku" at "mwstore://local-backend/local-temp/1/10/20210719111331!php0Ge3Ku.png".". —Amitd (talk) 11:23, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi, could you try again to confirm you are still having the same problem? —Emilio (talk) 19:12, 19 July 2021 (UTC)
No. Getting another error now: The file for "chunk" could not be stored for processing due to a server misconfiguration (no temporary directory). Amitd (talk) 06:57, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Page Formatting[edit source]

How do I change the default on pages to single spacing? I am trying to remove all the double spacing or extra spaces with new paragraphs but I can't get it to stick and it reverts back to double spaced. Thanks, Zach —The preceding comment was added by ZCollierMD (talkcontribs)

Hi, could you please show an example? We'll take a look at it.—Emilio (talk) 23:14, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
Formatting Example Screenshot.png
This screenshot shows the extra spacing that exists between the header, sub-header, and before/after the paragraph. How can I remove those extra spaces and make everything single spaced? Is there an html formatting code? Would adding "{line-height: 1; }" to the top or somewhere else on the source code remove that double-spacing? AmoSmile (talk) 23:22, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
I see. That is a padding rule that has been added to the text (not a double spacing). I've reduced it, could you check that it looks better now please? —Emilio (talk) 00:24, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
It appears to be the same padding on my end. Is that to delineate the header/sub-header #1/#2, etc? What is the padding for? If it can't be changed further than it's ok. It is more of a look/style thing than content so don't want to take up too much of your time. AmoSmile (talk) 00:29, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

Error related to images.[edit source]

I am able to insert an image without issue and it looks fine on the editing page, but when I save it, I get the following error "Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP." How can I fix this without making my images too small? —AmoSmile (talk) 22:08, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi! Perhaps the image you're using is high quality and therefore too big for the template to display it as a thumbnail. Try using a free online image compression tool such as Optimizilla to customize image size while maintaining quality. These sites usually allow you to control how much you want to shrink an image with a preview of the image quality change. Let me know if it works! Maidandre (talk) 21:12, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Table Formatting[edit source]

Do we have access to CSS styling for the tables? For some reason I am having trouble doing any editing of the tables beyond the standard wiki-table style. -AmoSmile (talk)

It is possible using templates for sure, but could you let us know what specific changes do you need? —Emilio (talk) 17:57, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Allow zip or rar files in Media upload[edit source]

Can you allow zip or rar files to upload? Sometimes multiple printing files are zipped and needed to be uploaded as a single print file. —Amitd (talk) 10:37, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

We do not allow them for sake of security issues. Are there many files inside the zip? We can organize them using Template:Device data which is really neat (see an example of it here). Let us ask @Sophivorus what he recommends. —Emilio (talk) 17:56, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
@Emilio @Amitd Hi! If the zip/rar file contains few files, then I agree that uploading them separately and linking them via Template:Device data would make them more accessible to the user. Kind regards, Sophivorus (talk) 13:23, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

How to change image size in Item template?[edit source]

How to change image size in Item template? I want custom image size but there is no option to edit the size in Item template. —Amitd (talk) 11:46, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

@Amitd We have been upgrading Template:Item so you'll see some changes. If the current size is too small, you can simply display it below the template (this is the intended use). For example:
1
This is a title

Fabx-image.jpg

I hope this helps! —Emilio (talk) 17:52, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Uploading PDFs[edit source]

Hello! We have created our education module through powerpoint and currently have it in a PDF format. Is there an easy way to upload our ~200 page pdf into sections of appropedia? - ASAP —ASAP (talk) 05:37, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi, were you able to do so using Special:UploadWizard? Let us know! —Emilio (talk) 17:52, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Which page do we use for final publishing for the showcase?[edit source]

Hello, This is the ALL-SAFE team here. I want to make sure I am publishing our content in the right place. Right now we have this site as our main site https://www.appropedia.org/ALL_SAFE_Syllabus. We also have our User page (with our team's headshots and roles, etc.). There is also the sandbox page https://www.appropedia.org/User:ALL_SAFE/sandbox that we were using to practice, but this does not have the most recent updates. Which site will the judges see? Am I missing something? Thank you!

[LINK][edit source]

There are a couple of [LINK]s that still need a link. E.g.,

"Check out the our creator's guide [LINK] for instructions on how to share a new training modules on Appropedia." Lonny (talk) 15:47, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
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