We are four surgeons who share a passion for teaching and education. Our vision is to provide high tech, high quality and highly accessible learning.
We feel that surgical trainees are not being given the best education that can be provided using modern technology.
Having talked to many of our colleagues, we found that we were not alone in feeling this way.
So we decided to do something about it.
Building upon a key technology conceived by our CTO Ad, we set out to change the way that surgical education is delivered.
Touch Surgery provides Cognitive Task Simulation (CTS) - teaching key operative decision making in a way that has been never done before. This allows you to learn, practice and rehearse a surgical procedure wherever you are, and whenever you need to. We hope this will improve your training experience, and allow you to be better prepared when the time for action comes.
We hope you enjoy using Touch Surgery. We would greatly appreciate any feedback.
Jean Nehme MBBS BSc MSc MRCS
CEO and Co-FounderJean is a Plastic Surgeon with an honours degree in Surgical Simulation from Imperial College London. He leads the team for business development, sales and marketing.
In his spare time Jean enjoys long distance running, and can usually be found pounding the pathways along the river Thames.
Ad Gandhe MBBS BSc(Honours) FRCS
CPO and Co-FounderAd is an Orthopaedic Surgeon, iOS developer, 3D animator and Innovator. Ad is on the faculty for many national and international courses in trauma, orthopaedics and advanced trauma Life support (American College of Surgeons), including those hosted by Stryker, DePuy, Synthes and other device companies.
He leads the team for Product Development.
Ad's passions include the arts and spending time with his two beautiful children.
Andre Chow MBBS(Distinction) BSc(Honours) MRCS
COO and Co-FounderAndre is a General Surgeon, Web coder, UX designer and leads Operations and Design. He has just completed his PhD in Stem Cell Research funded by the Wellcome Trust.
When not working, Andre spends his spare time playing a variety of sports, and trying to push his french bulldog off the sofa.
Sanjay Purkayastha MBBS BSc MD FRCS
Research Director and Co-FounderSanjay is a Bariatric Surgeon and Academic Lecturer. He has over 200 peer reviewed publications in surgery, and leads the research arm of Touch Surgery.
In his spare time Sanjay enjoys cooking and travelling around the world.
1. Learning to make decisions
It is thought that intra-operative decision making is more important than technical skill when
it comes to performing a safe operation.
However, decision making is poorly taught in current surgical training schemes, where trainees
have to rely on inefficient learning methods such as repetition and observation, rather than
receiving clear and direct instruction.
2. Cognitive Task Analysis
Touch Surgery uses a process called Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) to break down
individual operations into a series of steps and decision points.
CTA has been proven to improve learning and retention of skills and decision making.
3. Cognitive Task Simulation
Surgical Steps and decision points are input into the Touch Surgery
development process to create
a Cognitive Task Simulation (CTS).
This creates a contextual, visual
and highly interactive learning environment - bringing these steps to life.
It is well known that learning by interaction is
associated with far higher knowledge retention rates than traditional
learning tools such as lectures, reading or watching video.
4. Learn, Practice, Rehearse, Test
Surgical trainees are able to use Touch Surgery to learn, practice and
rehearse the surgical decision making process.
The Touch Surgery Test Simulation then pushes you to recall the
intra-operative decision making process without cues, allowing you to actively
make every important decision, further reinforcing your learning.
5. Learning Curves
Touch Surgery provides immediate feedback on your performance, allowing
you to see your learning curve on the Touch Surgery website.
This allows you to track your progress, demonstrate proof of learning, and
focus your efforts.
6. Improving Surgical Training
Touch Surgery therefore delivers engaging and interactive surgical education,
using a format that is proven to improve learning efficiency.
Designing Touch Surgery for mobile platforms makes this incredibly accessible and
usable by surgical trainees, improving their surgical training experience.
