General and Thoracic Surgery Education

Thomas M. Daniel

Professor Emeritus of Surgery
Simulation Surgery Coordinator for International Teaching
Department of Surgery
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Dr. Daniel is now retired.

About The Course

General and Thoracic Surgery Education was dedicated to helping general surgery instructors in developing countries teach operations for commonly encountered clinical problems by offering a free, mobile-friendly online course that accelerates learning by enhancing the understanding of each step of an operation before progressing to in-person simulation exercises.

Using inexpensive, locally-available animal tissue and easily accessible instruments, techniques are shown for procedures commonly encountered in practices in the developing world.

The course describes six trans-abdominal and four trans-thoracic surgery exercises using simulation exercises, including the technique of patient positioning for a thoracotomy.

The founder of General & Thoracic Simulation Surgery Education for Developing Countries, Dr. Thomas Daniel, Professor Emeritus of Surgery at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, was selected as an instructor in 2013 for a program developed by the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, Africa.

As Dr. Daniel prepared for his first trip to Rwanda in 2013, one fact kept going through his mind – “there is not a single trained thoracic surgeon in the entire country.” So, in addition to teaching general surgical procedures, he decided to introduce physicians in Rwanda to thoracic surgery. But he also wanted to create a sustainable teaching model that would continue long after he left the country.

This idea served as the spark for his online General and Thoracic Surgery Education course focusing on six general surgery and four thoracic procedures. “Simulation breaks the ice and provides the experience of having an experienced teacher directly walk you through a case,” says Dr. Daniel. “Simulation accelerates the learning process by creating environments where you can practice procedures and can afford to make mistakes, learn how to be captain of a team, and use assistants wisely.”

Videos lessons from the General and Thoracic Surgery Education course are still available on the Vimeo Video platform under the account of Scitent eLearning LLC: https://vimeo.com/user4169200.