Toward the development of a virtual electrosurgery training simulator.

We propose a principled approach to the design of a computer-based, virtual reality simulator specifically for electrosurgical training. The design builds on the Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy (FUSE) program's didactic curriculum and the results of a survey of domain experts on the roles of cognitive knowledge and hands-on training for a selection of electrosurgery tasks. The resulting design focuses narrowly on the tissue effects caused during electrosurgery and the identified physician-controllable factors causing those effects.