Jim Pryor Begonia Prize, Provincial Surgeon Australia 2015

On October 30, I attended the Provincial Surgeon Australia conference in Lismore, NSW. 

I was there to present my research (Development and Evaluation of an Inexpensive Home-Made Laparoscopic Trainer for Surgical Training) for the Jim Pryor Begonia Prize. There were a total of 7 presentations. 

Jim Pryor was a distinguished General Surgeon in the City of Ballarat from 1963 to 2002. The Jim Pryor Begonia Prize, was a memorial to Jim's contribution to country surgery. He conceived the Begonia Prize session of the PSA annual meeting to enable surgeons to exchange views about procedures large or small, instruments they had found useful or techniques they have found worked. The presentation had to be brief (3 minutes) and he instructed the Judge to award extra points for originality. 

At the end of the session, i was announced the winner. I had such a great time at the conference meeting new friends and learning new things. The GALA dinner on Friday was especially memorable, to see all the surgeons letting their hair down and dancing like there is no tomorrow! 

Next year's PSA will be held in Albany, Western Australia, in early August and it promises to be a great one as well!

Sally Erickson (right) - finally got to meet the lady who is behind every GSA event

John Henderson - this man has a spirit of gold. In his 80s, he still contributes to every RACS event by being the photographer

Dr Graeme Campbell (right) - receiving Rural Surgeons Award for his contribution to Rural Surgery

Dr Stephenie Weidlich (left)  - Surgeon from Darwin. She was the person who suggested i should present my research idea in PSA! She also recently Supervisor of the Year award from RACS. Thanks Stephanie!

Here is my presentation

Good Afternoon ladies and gentleman.

One disadvantage of working in regional or rural hospitals is limited access to surgical simulation. If you are interested to purchase a commercial laparoscopic trainer to practise at home, a FLS (Fundamental of Laparoscopic Surgery) trainer cost $3360,

So I am here today to show you how to make one with just $84.20 in less than 30 minutes.

To construct a home-made laparoscopic trainer, firstly, we need a box. I got the IV fluids Baxter for free. The sides and the front of the box are cut.

We then fixed a white tile on the base to serve as a platform for laparoscopic tasks.

We then glued a strip of velcro onto the tile. 

We used four pieces of elastic bands each tied to a clip, and they are attached to the four corners of the box.

For light sources, we used a LED ribbon strip, and that was glued on the inside roof of the box.

We used a high definition Logitech C525 webcam with autofocus ability, and mounted on the side of the box.

We made two holes for the instruments.

This is the final product.

This is a list of materials and cost needed to construct the lap trainer.

This home-made lap trainer has been successfully validated by 30 participants in our hospital and found to be comparable to the FLS trainer, and it was extremely well-received by the participants as well. 

Now some of you may be thinking: What can i do with this home-made lap trainer? Well, sit back and enjoy.

Video: A collaborative effort between Dr Grieve and I (ps: he did the harder tasks)

Finally, the best thing about the home-made lap trainer, is even my son can play with it.