Medical students at Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CI MED) are advancing their knowledge and skills of complex neurosurgical procedures through special hands-on training under the guidance of world-class neurosurgeons.
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Medical students at Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CI MED) are advancing their knowledge and skills of complex neurosurgical procedures through special hands-on training under the guidance of world class neurosurgeons. The training also paired elite neurosurgeons with medical residents from across the country for one-to-one guidance seeking to refine their skills for treating skull-based tumors, brain aneurysms, and other intricate procedures.
The unique opportunity was offered through the Second Annual Microsurgery and Endoscopic Hands-On Course. The training used cadavers rather than virtual simulations for a higher-fidelity experience. CI MED students participated in both course lectures and the cadaver dissection portions of the training.
"The course was a unique opportunity for the CIMED students to learn in depth about complex cranial surgery from world-class neurosurgeons, to network, gain feedback about their research, and collaborate with other institutions," explained course director Dr. Wael Mostafa, a CI MED clinical professor and the program lead for brain tumor and skull base surgery at Carle Health. "We held the largest course of its kind in the Midwest, and cadaver dissection is the best tool for teaching."
A special two-day course was held at Carle Illinois’ Medical Sciences Building in late August. It allowed several future physician innovators and 18 medical residents to learn from expert neurosurgeons from across the U.S.
Carle Illinois MD/PhD student Al Smith called the hands-on training exceptional. "Medical students were able to get a lot out of the experience. Many of the neurosurgeons allowed us to participate directly in the dissection and experience some of the cutting-edge technology used in neurosurgery first-hand," Smith said.
Smith was able to use the course resources to conduct cadaver-based tests of his invention, a neurosurgical navigation device to assist general surgeons in low-resource settings with safe and effective shunt placement when no neurosurgeon is available. Smith and fellow medical student Annabelle Shaffer also presented their neurosurgical research to the experts and residents attending the course. Carle Illinois medical students were also part of a multi-institutional project with the University of Missouri-Columbia, using the state-of-the-art 7Tesla MRI housed at Carle Foundation Hospital.
The training also showcased surgical expertise available in the Midwest and other regions. Neurosurgeons traveled to Champaign-Urbana from institutions across the country, including Goodman Campbell Brain & Spine of Carmel Indiana, University of Maryland, University of Kansas, Cleveland Clinic/Abu Dhabi, Loyola University Medical Center, University of Missouri – Columbia, Medical College of Wisconsin, and Indiana University. Carle Health President and CEO Dr. James Leonard and Carle Illinois College of Medicine Dean Mark Cohen attended aspects of the event.
Tracey Mencio Wszalek, co-director of the Carle Illinois Advanced Imaging Center, said, "We used MRI imaging versus CT scans for neuronavigation to simulate real surgeries." Wszalek, who is also director of the Biomedical Imaging Center at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at UIUC, said "Wael’s relationships allowed for millions of dollars of equipment to be at the disposal of residents participating."
Carle Health hosted the special training on August 27-28 in conjunction with the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, and the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The training was held at the university’s Medical Sciences Building, home of Carle Illinois College of Medicine.
The course will be offered annually, after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next training will be held August 11-12, 2023.
Editor’s note: Adapted from this original article by Carle Health.