Abstract:
It is well-established that surgical care directly affects patients’ quality of life, and that poor quality surgical care increases the risk of death and other severe complications. The process of ensuring high quality surgical care begins with educating, efficiently training, and credentialing competent surgeons. While there is currently no global consensus for surgical competency, most definitions refer to the level of skill required to safely perform a particular procedure.  Most tend to think of surgical competency as relating to both technical and non-technical skill as well as judgment during a procedure, and so being able to assess and, more importantly, improve on each of these aspects ultimately drives the quality of surgical care that exists throughout the healthcare system. This talk will focus on the use of current technology available to train surgeons and explore new research strategies in computer science to improve training.

Bio:
Shameema Sikder, M.D., is an assistant professor of ophthalmology and founding medical director of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Bethesda. She specializes in corneal disorders, including Fuchs dystrophy and keratoconus; complex cataracts and external eye diseases. Dr. Sikder’s clinical interests include surgical treatments for corneal diseases. Dr. Sikder is also director of the Center of Excellence for Ophthalmic Surgical Education and Training (OphSET) at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has a particular interest in surgical education and is working on a technologies that could be implemented at the international level to improve the level of ophthalmic surgical care.  Dr. Sikder received her M.D. degree from the University of Arizona. She completed her ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins and fellowship in cornea and refractive disease at the Moran Eye Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she received the Claes Dohlman Fellow of the Year Award, recognizing the most distinguished cornea fellow in the nation. Dr. Sikder returned to Wilmer in 2011 and served as assistant chief of service (chief resident) and associate director of ocular trauma.