Institute for Healthcare Engineering (IHE) Symposium 2022

The annual UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering (IHE) Research Symposium returned to an in-person event at the Wellcome Collection. At the symposium Carmen Salvadores Fernandez and Hugo Layard Horsfall presented their work on "A Sensorised Surgical Glove to Analyse Forces During Surgery". The aim of this work – which was recently accepted in Neurosurgery - is to develop a sensorised surgical glove that is able to give real-time force readings of the forces applied by neurosurgeons throughout a microsurgical task, to support safer surgical training and practice. 

Discussing their work, Carmen and Hugo explained that six expert and six novice neurosurgeons completed a validated grape dissection task 20 times consecutively, wearing the sensorised glove. The average force and the maximum force applied by experts was significantly lower than the average force and maximum force exerted by novices. They also studied the relationship between the forces measured at the glove and those measured at the tip of the instrument that the surgeons were holding with the glove (which would effectively represent the force applied at the tissue). 
 
Simon Watt, our Public Engagement Manager, helped deliver the final session of the day on the IHE Impact Fellowship Scheme along with last year’s Fellows.