SKILL Assist

SKILL Assist: Remote made remarkable

Events of the last 18 months have highlighted the growing need for solutions to break down the barriers to medical education faced by physicians across the globe. This has led to the adoption of a wide array of smart platforms to support healthcare providers, but there is still room for innovation to enable seamless collaboration between physicians, from anywhere in the world.

THIS IS WHERE STRYKER’S SKILL

Assist Remote Proctoring Solution comes in. Developed by Stryker’s neurovascular division and supported by CAREPROD technologies, in collaboration with neurovascular experts, SKILL Assist is a remote proctoring platform designed to allow remote sharing of experience and patient management, built with the needs of the neurovascular specialist in mind. “This kind of system will allow us to perform hands-on teaching in a remote fashion with a very high-level quality, and I think it is a major, major improvement in the educational process,” comments Vincent Costalat (Gui de Chauliac University Hospital, Montpellier, France).

The platform is designed to lift the physical barriers to medical education, and enable joint working across borders. The system facilitates training and collaboration during a neurovascular procedure, live. SKILL Assist uses remote tools, including fully HD cameras with a 360-degree range of vision capable of providing total visual and verbal control, and on-screen annotation for clear direction. Connected via synchronous video and audio transmission, a neurovascular specialist using SKILL Assist is able to connect to an expert for real-time collaboration from any location.

How does SKILL Assist work?

The platform consists of a control monitor and two automated, low-latency NDI cameras which are set up in the angiosuite. These are connected to a remote location via a secure 4G or 5G connection. On the other side of the connection, a physician-trainer has access to using a touchscreen display. This broadcasts the images from the procedure in real time, enabling the experienced physician to move the cameras for a detailed understanding of the environment.

Touchscreen functionality allows the physician to write, point, or draw on the

Proctor view

The proctor can write and draw on the trainee screen in another part of the world screen—with the annotations beamed instantly back to the angiosuite. The movement of the pen is mirrored on both sides—every time a landing zone is marked or the curve of the vessel is traced. These features are augmented with a two-way voice connection that ensures a steady flow of communication.

The plug-and-play system is designed to be ready to use in minutes, and is portable, scalable and autonomous of any hospital internet network. The system can be ready for use in under 10 minutes. and is built with security in mind, having been engineered to meet or exceed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards.

Are there other advantages?

Among the possible benefits of using the system, is having access to a broad range of expertise and knowledge, all at the touch of a button. “You can have training from different interventional neuroradiologists across the world, lots of different opinions on how to do things, learn different techniques from different people, whereas at the moment you are just trained by the people you are working with,” says Laetitia de Villiers (Gold Coast University Hospital, Southport, Australia). “That a very exciting prospect,” she adds.

Increasingly, environmental concerns are influencing the way that individuals and organisations choose to operate. As digital platforms have been shown to be a means of facilitating learning during the pandemic, their use as a tool to provide high-quality, hands-on education, without the cost and environmentally damaging effects of international air travel, are likely to be appealing. Being able to stand sideby-side with educators from across the globe, virtually, will undoubtedly have a role to play in the development of the next generation of neurovascular specialists.

According to Christophe Cognard (Purpan University Hospital in Toulouse, France), this is a key reason why he supports the use of SKILL Assist. He says: “There is no need to take flights or taxis, or to book a hotel room. You save lots of time and lots of energy. My real concern is the evolution of the climate on the planet, and indeed by using this system you decrease the production of carbon dioxide, tremendously. This, for me, is something which is really essential.”

All of these arguments make a strong case for SKILL Assist to become a key component of neurovascular education in the future—breaking down the barriers to high-quality training.