About the Challenge

The Intuitive Foundation, in partnership with Challenge Works, MIT Solve, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Appropedia launched the Global Surgical Training Challenge in 2020 to stimulate the creation of novel, low-cost surgical training modules. These open-source modules help surgical practitioners  to learn and assess new skills to improve the health of their communities.

The Challenge aimed to create a paradigm shift in how surgical practitioners learn and assess surgical techniques. The validated modules are free to download and inexpensive to reproduce in a variety of global settings.

Each surgical simulation model is accompanied by a self-assessment framework, allowing surgical practitioners to test their newly acquired skills and all modules (the model, know-how for build and training materials) are free to download online at the Global Surgical Training Community platform.

Following the launch of the Challenge on 15 July 2020, MIT Solve hosted a series of virtual networking and workshop events called Solveathons. To find out more about our Solveathon workshops, visit our page Participate.

The Challenge was divided in three stages:

Discovery Awards (up to US$200k each)

The Discovery Awards were initial grants to allow teams to develop and test their prototype surgical modules. Grantees were expected to utilise their grant to develop an initial prototype and self-assessment framework. The Challenge’s Judging Panel selected 10 teams to receive Discovery Awards.

Finalist Awards (up to US$500k each)

The Finalist Awards were grants that allowed four teams to further develop and improve their original prototypes. These Finalist Awards followed successful applications from the Discovery Award stage.

Grand Prize (of US$1million)

The Grand Prize was awarded to the Finalist team deemed to have most successfully developed their original prototype and created the most impact through further module development. A Runner-up was also selected.