Requirement specification for surgical simulation systems with surgical workflows.

Surgical simulations are normally developed in a cycle of continuous refinement. This leads to high costs in simulator design and as a result to a very limited number of simulators which are used in clinical training scenarios. We propose using Surgical Workflow Analysis for a goal-oriented specification of surgical simulators. Based on Surgical Workflows, the needed interaction scenarios and properties of a simulator can be derived easily. It is also possible to compare an existing simulator with the real workflow to distinguish whether it behaves realistically. We are currently using this method for the design of a new simulator for transnasal neurosurgery with good success.