Global Surgical Training Challenge

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What was the Global Surgical Training Challenge?

The Intuitive Foundation, in partnership with Challenge Works and MIT Solve, have launched the US$5 million Global Surgical Training Challenge to stimulate the creation of novel, low-cost surgical training modules. These open-source modules will help surgical practitioners to learn and assess new skills to improve the health of their communities.

The Challenge aimed to create a paradigm shift in how surgical practitioners learn and assess surgical techniques. All modules are free to download and inexpensive to reproduce in a variety of global settings at the soon-to-be launched Global Surgical Training Community platform.

What we achieved?

The most comprehensive surgical training programs can be expensive and resource intensive. Many rely on access to cadavers, live animal training models and technology-driven simulation-based training. Without access to such training, resource-constrained settings often have less hands-on experience before they are expected to operate on patients. The Global Surgical Training Challenge addresses the need for lower cost simulation-based training by incentivising the creation of such models.

The three-year Challenge, run by Challenge Works in partnership with Intuitive Foundation, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Solve, and Appropedia, started with 42 teams from 44 different countries. Last year, the field narrowed down to four finalists. The judging panel met in December 2022 to review the final submissions and make their decision. The decision was based on a variety of parameters, but focused on how well the modules fulfill the critical components — didactic rigor, simulation-based skill acquisition, and self-assessment.

Next steps?

The SELF: Surgical Education Learners Forum is an exciting spin-off building on the success of the Global Surgical Training Challenge. It will include partnering with health facilities to continue the clinical validation of new training modules, as well as providing grants to innovators to develop self-administered training modules that teach surgical skills.

Interested in working with us on a Global Health challenge? Check out our priorities page.

Meet the Challenge winners who are pioneering surgical training

Grand Prize Winner and Runner-Up

ALL-SAFE

Team ALL-SAFE, based in Ethiopia with members in Cameroon, Kenya, and the United States, building surgical self-training modules for laparoscopic skills, has been selected as the GRAND PRIZE winner of $700,000 (USD).
Tibial Fracture Fixation

Team Tibial Fracture Fixation (TFF), based in Nigeria, has won the Runner-Up award of $300,000 to continue their work building modules using 3D printing to teach essential fracture management.

Who were the Challenge Judges?

Dr. Catherine Mohr, President of the Intuitive Foundation
Martin Smith, Professor of Surgery at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa
Dr. Mohan, medical graduate from Maulana Azad Medical College
Dr. Umeh, medical doctor, trainee surgeon and Msc surgical science student at Edinburgh University, UK (Distance Learning)
Dr. Rajiv Doshi, Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Director of the India Biodesign Program at Stanford University
Dr. Ssekitoleko, Head of Biomedical Engineering at the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University
Dr. Flores-Villalba, General Surgeon at Tec de Monterrey
Carla Pugh, Professor of Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the T.E.C.I. Center
Dr. Puyana, acute care surgeon and educator in trauma, and emergency surgery
Dr. Brennan, Senior Vice President of International Programs, Benno C. Schmidt Chair in Clinical Oncology
Rachel Wood, Senior Innovation Advisor in the Center for Innovation and Impact (CII) at USAID