Don Stredney of the Ohio Supercomputer Center and Greg Wiet, MD, of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Ohio State University Medical Center recently received from Columbus Business First a Health Care Heroes Honorable Mention in Innovation Award for their Virtual Temporal Bone surgery simulation project.

The business journal’s annual awards program honors those who have made an impact on health care in the community through their concern for patients, research and inventions, management skills, innovative programs for employees and service to the poor and uninsured.

The Virtual Temporal Bone simulator, developed as a collaborative project between Stredney and Wiet, creates real-time, interactive computer simulations for surgeons to learn the difficult and delicate surgical techniques associated with ear surgery, which involves drilling into a bone in the skull called the temporal bone. Because the temporal bone lies close to a major artery and critical nerves for the face, learning to perform the surgery can be tricky.

Without a virtual simulation environment, medical residents would learn this surgery by working on cadavers and through apprenticeships in an operating room. Through multi-institution validation studies, Stredney and Wiet believe that this simulation technology will increase the efficiency of a resident’s training while also raising his or her proficiency. Ultimately, this innovation could provide a safe, cost-effective way to learn fundamental techniques.

An independent panel of health-care professionals selected by Columbus Business First evaluated nominations.

Click here for the Business First article.