Current surgical training programmes rely heavily on access to cadavers, live animal training models and expensive simulation-based training that is often not globally accessible. Our aim was to address this by changing the way surgical training is delivered through incentivizing the creation of low-cost surgical modules and accompanying self-assessment frameworks to teach psycho-motor skills.
The surgical modules created by our participating teams have been made freely available on a new online platform, the Global Surgical Training Community. All surgical practitioners globally have access to use these modules and test and develop their surgical skills.
The Challenge was run by Challenge Works in partnership with the Intuitive Foundation and MIT Solve.
For more information on the Challenge partners, visit our page Who’s Involved.
The Challenge launched on the 15th July 2020 and ran until December 2022. The Challenge comprised four major milestones;
Solveathon® workshops (July-October 2020)
Following the Challenge launch in July 2020, MIT Solve hosted a series of Solveathon workshops. These were virtual, high-energy workshops designed to build teams and strengthen their applications.
During these Solveathon workshops, participants;
Discovery Awards (December 2020)
Following the Solveathon workshops, teams had the opportunity to enter the first round of grants, the Discovery Awards. The Discovery Awards were initial grants of up to $200,000 to allow teams to develop and test their prototype surgical modules. Applicants entered the Discovery Awards through the Intuitive Foundation’s grant application system.
Applications opened on 16th September 2020 and closed 11th November 2020.
Finalist Awards (December 2021)
The Finalist Awards were grants of up to $500,000 to allow teams to further develop and improve their original prototype and to develop further modules. Finalist Award grantees underwent external validation (organised by Challenge partners) of their prototype between January-October 2022.
Finalist Award Winners were announced in December 2021.
Grand Prize (January 2023)
The Grand Prize was awarded to the Finalist team deemed to have most successfully improved upon their original prototype and created the most impact through further module development. A runner-up was also selected.
The Grand Prize Winner was announced in January 2023.
We were looking for multidisciplinary teams of educators, clinicians, technology developers and creatives, including;
Teams participating in the Challenge were comprised of the following participants:
Educator – managed the pedagogical objectives of the training module, and was an expert in the field of skill acquisition and assessment.
Clinician – surgical practitioner with clinical experience in LMICs, who would contextualise the design of the simulation training module with first-hand experience.
Technical Expert – managed the development of the technology and materials needed for the delivery of the simulation module.
For the purposes of this Challenge, ‘surgical practitioner’ includes all medical roles involved in surgery (surgeons, anesthesiologists, midwives, clinical officers, nurses, students).
The Challenge sought novel surgical training modules that allowed for the training and assessment of psycho-motor skills acquisition. The surgical module should comprise of a package of open source know-how on how to build a novel, low cost surgical training model and the associated training materials needed to train and self-assess skills acquisition using the model.
We encouraged highly innovative entries using any relevant affordable technology. The judging panel favourably considered frugal innovations that do not rely on high-tech solutions. The Challenge was open to completely new, early stage ideas or existing solutions that are pivoting or adding new elements or functionality.
The modules focus on the acquisition of one or more of the psycho-motor skills needed to deliver a critical step of a specific surgical procedure.
Preference was placed on elements of procedures that are either technically complex and/or do not happen frequently enough for surgical practitioners, or surgical trainees to experience them in their practice, as both of these scenarios result in an increased risk of patient mortality.
Targeted surgical skills should be complex enough to necessitate simulation training by surgical practitioners or surgical trainees who possess basic surgical training.
These were chosen by the teams. However, the modules focus on the acquisition of one or more psycho-motor skills needed to deliver a critical step of a specific surgical procedure.
Targeted surgical skills are those complex enough to necessitate simulation training by surgical practitioners or surgical trainees who possess basic surgical training.
For the purposes of this Challenge, the surgical module is a package of open source know-how to build a surgical training model and the associated training materials needed to train and self-assess skills acquisition using the model.
We brought together a high-profile panel of judges, surgical simulation specialists, surgical practitioners, engineers, cross-sector leaders and healthcare professionals who are dedicated to supporting applicants to the Prize throughout all phases of the Challenge.
For more information specific to the Judging Criteria, please see our Innovator Handbook.
Teams were and are expected use any funding received through the Challenge for the purposes of developing the solution. This could also cover costs for staff working on the solution, or engaging external expertise or advice (not already provided by the Challenge). All Discovery and Finalist Award grantees were asked to sign a grant agreement, as described in the Terms and Conditions.
All entrants to the Challenge are expected to abide by the Terms and Conditions.
No, the distribution of the Awards depended on performance against our criteria. We awarded the grant money because the judges considered applications to have met or exceeded the Challenge criteria.
Please read more in the Terms and Conditions.
Non-Financial Support
The Challenge offered participants a range of non-financial support:
Solveathon Workshops
Following the Challenge launch in July 2020, MIT Solve hosted a series of Solveathon workshops. These were virtual, high-energy workshops designed to build teams and strengthen their applications for the Challenge. During these Solveathon workshops, participants;
Package of Tools
Grantees at both the Discovery Award and Finalist stages had access to capacity development support and a package of tools to help develop their solutions.
This in-kind support was tailored to their needs while ensuring equity of support and access. The nature of this support was discussed with competitors when they applied to the Discovery Awards in September 2020.
Mentoring
Throughout both the Discovery Award and Finalist development phases, teams had the opportunity to receive mentorship from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The mentors provided support on model development and feedback on usability in the field.
Discovery Awards
Finalist Award Winners
The Grand Prize
The Challenge is now closed for entries.
There were no fees to participate in the Challenge.
Any information submitted to the Challenge will be kept confidential as described in the Terms and Conditions, except for the surgical module, which will be shared on the Global Surgical Training Community platform.
Winners of Awards (Discovery, Finalist, Grand Prize) authorize Challenge Works (Nesta) and the Intuitive Foundation to make their surgical training module publicly and freely available on the Global Surgical Training Community platform.
More information is given in the Challenge Terms and Conditions.
Please send your query to [email protected] and a member of our teams will get back to you.
