CERTAIN focuses on developing innovative ways to improve education for both medical trainees and faculty. Its primary focus is on establishing pre-clinical proficiency: an objective demonstration of “readiness to perform” prior to actual clinical exposure.
Training Sessions & Courses
The Center hosts training sessions and courses for various learners in the medical center. From academic days for our department’s CA-1 residents to ultrasound courses for other departments, including Nephrology and Hospital Medicine, CERTAIN emphasizes a multimodal teaching approach that utilizes online modules hosted on a learning management system developed and managed by the department, in-person lectures and case discussions, and hands-on practice on simulators and live models. These training sessions and courses occur in our dedicated Anesthesia Skills Lab and strive to improve learners’ knowledge, skills, and workflow understanding for procedures ranging from intubations to ultrasound-guided vascular access to echocardiography. With CERTAIN’s support, Dr. Ruma Bose was awarded a Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research grant to fund the development of a rescue ultrasound curriculum for senior residents that uses mixed reality.
Pedagogy
CERTAIN is at the forefront of developing different methods for teaching. Dr. Daniel Walsh recently created an online Journal Club curriculum to increase intraoperative teaching and is working with residents and fellows to develop interactive branched chain learning modules for various subspecialties. Dr. Matyal is leading an effort to increase peer-assisted teaching in the department where senior residents train junior residents through case discussions and just-in-time hands-on learning. In addition, Dr. Nadav Levy is working to implement in-situ simulation training for faculty and residents.
Technology & Innovation
CERTAIN is leading an initiative to work with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) simulation companies to develop VR simulators for teaching procedural skills, such as transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia, as well as teamwork skills. The Center also supports research using new technologies for teaching, such as Dr. Haobo Ma’s study on teaching fiberoptic intubation skills using 3-dimensional (3D) printing technology, which was awarded with a Society for Education in Anesthesia SEAd grant. CERTAIN is also collaborating with Interventional Radiology in a CRICO-funded study on using motion metrics to assess and provide objective feedback to residents learning central venous catheter placement skills.
