The Hand Guide: A Virtual Reality Application for Surgical Training

Surgical practices in controlled and mistake-safe environments are traditionally limited by the tutor’s time availability and by the usage of consumable materials to simulate surgeries in patients. In this context, we developed the “Hand Guide”, a virtual reality application that allows expert surgeons to record their hand movements during a simulated surgical procedure and offer it to a surgical student to try to replicate it. The application provides real-time feedback and also a final score at the end of the recorded procedure. Validation with a specialist revealed that the application may be used to teach theoretical content to students with no surgical background and to demonstrate new techniques to experienced surgeons.