A partnership with Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine to support

2019’s Cut Suit Week

Introduction

The need

Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic

Medicine (RVUCOM), a leading provider of

graduate medical education, has a

longstanding tradition of surgical training and

simulation. For the 2019 annual Intensive

Surgical and Trauma Skills Course, also known

as Cut Suit Week, second-year military

students and various law enforcement

agencies used San Diego’s Stu Segall

Productions lot to gain hands-on experience

in trauma and emergency medicine.

The event, hosted by Strategic Operations, Inc.

(STOPS), the makers of the Cut Suit®, in

collaboration with RVUCOM’s Military

Medicine Track, has become an important

training opportunity and milestone for

students and law enforcement agencies alike.

During the week, students rotate through task

trainer skill stations and participate in

scenario-driven mass casualty drills.

With Cut Suit Week involving a full program of

interactive sessions, Anthony J. LaPorta, MD,

FACS, Professor and Course Director for the

Military Track at Rocky Vista University wanted

to ensure that participating students were

prepared ahead of time. In particular, the task

trainer skill stations, where students rotate

through surgical core competency skills,

demand familiarity with the basics of the

relevant lifesaving interventions. In the past,

students received textual preparatory

materials via email. Whilst sufficient, these

preparatory materials did not fully immerse

and engage students. Furthermore, without a

way to track uptake, it was difficult for

RVUCOM leadership to understand whether

the materials were useful.

For 2019’s Cut Suit Week, RVUCOM partnered

with Digital Surgery to develop a more

interactive and data-based approach to

prepare participating students.

Our solution

to ensure that participating students were

prepared ahead of time. In particular, the task

trainer skill stations, where students rotate

through surgical core competency skills,

demand familiarity with the basics of the

relevant lifesaving interventions. In the past,

students received textual preparatory

materials via email. While sufficient, these

preparatory materials did not fully immerse

and engage students. Furthermore, without a

way to track uptake, it was difficult for

RVUCOM leadership to understand whether

the materials were useful.

For 2019’s Cut Suit Week, RVUCOM partnered

with Digital Surgery to develop a more

interactive and data-based approach to

prepare participating students.

Building more interactive training content using surgical videos.

Digital Surgery worked with RVUCOM

organizers to upload and annotate four videos

for the 2019 Cut Suit Week via its video storage

and analytics platform, Touch Surgery

Professional. Each video focused on a core

competency critical to saving lives during

mass casualty and trauma events. These were

Cricothyrotomy, Deep Wound Packing,

Needle and Chest Tube Thoracostomy, and

Tourniquet Application.

Instructional content was built by a small

group of RVUCOM students and staff,

including the uploading of videos and use of

the platform’s single-click annotation feature

to insert phases and key objectives, as well as

reminders for best practice and built-in

assessments. Surgical videos - existing yet

frequently underused resources – were

successfully utilized to create powerful and

engaging preparatory materials in a fraction of

the time it would have taken to edit videos

with standard video editing software.

9:41

simulated techniques (which did not contain

any Personally Identifiable Information (PII)),

the security features provided an extra layer of

reassurance that teaching materials are being

handled securely.

"With limited faculty interactions, a large number of procedures to learn, and alternative

approaches to the same procedure, residents face a difficult learning curve.

Touch Surgery Professional offers a way to repurpose surgical videos, allowing us to teach not

only one way, but many ways to perform the proper procedure. It has made a big difference in

the way we prepare students in real life, with a REAL LIFE AT STAKE” 

Colonel Retired, USAMC; Professor of Clinical Surgery and Course Director of Military Track for Rocky Vista University; Department of Defense Health Board Committee on Trauma and Injury

Anthony J. LaPorta - MD, FACS

Assessing engagement and comprehension

As invited students accessed the training

materials, Digital Surgery provided updated

data reports to RVUCOM leadership. These

reports outlined engagement (i.e. which

videos have been viewed and by how many of

the invitees) and assessment scores (i.e.

maximum, minimum and average test scores).

For the first time, the organizers of Cut Suit

Week could identify whether or not students

engaged with the preparatory materials and

whether they had any additional training

needs.

Distributing content securely to permitted members

RVUCOM invited half of the participating

students, selected at random, to access the

newly created preparatory materials and

assessments. Invited students received an

alert via email, and were immediately able to

access materials securely via mobile or web

after signing up with the Touch Surgery app.

This meant that busy medical students could

engage with the materials anywhere and

anytime - in the morning, between classes or

whenever time allowed.

Touch Surgery Professional is hosted on the

Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, meaning

that video content is hosted and stored in a

HIPAA- and SOC 2-compliant environment.

Although RVUCOM chose to use videos of

For more information contact help@touchsurgery.com

The impact

Digital Surgery ran an independent survey of

participants who prepared for Cut Suit Week

using the Touch Surgery Professional platform.

Nearly all surveyed users agreed that they

would recommend the product to others.

RVUCOM is in the process of independently

coordinating objective assessments of

performance outcomes on the skills labs

portion of Cut Suit Week with the use of the

Touch Surgery Professional platform. Results

will be updated as they become available.

WOULD RECOMMEND TO A COLLEAGUE

RETAINED TECHNIQUES DURING SKILLS STATION

HELPED TO INCREASE CONFIDENCE

HELPED PREPARE FOR SKILL STATION

89%88%

n=15

90% 91% 92% 93% 94%