Showing Surgical Trainees How Hard They're Cutting

The problem

A medical device company built a training device for surgical bone saws: a cutting block fitted with strain gauges that sense how a trainee is pushing the saw. The hardware could measure the forces, but trainees and instructors needed software that turned those readings into feedback they could use during a cut, and a record they could review afterward.

What we built

Live feedback during the cut. Arrows show which way the trainee is pushing, and a six-step strength indicator beside each one shows how hard. Trainees can correct their technique while they are still cutting.

A clean baseline every time. After the trainee picks the type of cut, the software prompts them to make sure nothing is touching the block, then zeroes every sensor channel so each session starts from an accurate baseline.

A record of every cut. Each start and stop is its own numbered cut within a session, saved to its own file and filed by trainee, date, and type of cut. When a cut ends, the trainee is prompted for notes, which are saved with the data, so instructors can see how technique changes over time.

Easy to administer. Trainee names, the sampling rate, and other acquisition settings live in a configuration file that an administrator can update without touching the software.

The result

Trainees got immediate, visual feedback on technique that is otherwise hard to judge by feel, and instructors got an organized history of every cut to review with them.