Surgery Collaborative and Long-term Practical Experience Learning

Surgery is one of the fields of medicine where professionals are heavily relying on dexterity and practical application of specialised skill sets. With each opportunity to practice surgical skills...

By implementing the project, the following objectives were achieved: - surgical knowledge, experience, and practical skills at the level of PG students/early-career surgeons and academics specialised in surgery was exchanged, - surgical skills of PG students/early-career surgeons from the field of surgery were enhanced via participation in international internships where they were able to observe and assist with specialised surgical procedures under the mentorship of world-renown experienced surgeons, - expertise of European surgeons was increased, - early international collaborations within the target groups were supported by providing extended networking opportunities and activities to PG students and more senior surgeons (i.e. academics); the target groups had multiple opportunities to share and exchange their knowledge and experience not only within the bounds of their surgical specialisation, - inspiration and support for setting up surgical cadaveric courses at other institution’s anatomical department (UNIZG) was provided. This fruitful collaboration now offers further opportunities for training of surgeons in a long run.

TRANSNATIONAL PROJECT MEETINGS All transnational project meetings that took place as a part of this project were organised in an online form. Multiple formats were tried out to suit the availability of the project leadership (separate meetings for each surgical specialisation and also meetings with all partners at once were attempted). The following transnational project meetings took place throughout the course of the project. For more information about the names and numbers of participants and/or focus of each of the meetings, please see the Transnational Project Meetings section of the Beneficiary Module. TPM 1 Plastic surgery kick off meeting, 14th of January 2022 Spondylosurgery kick off meeting, 18th of January 2022 Neurosurgery kick off meeting, 25th of January 2022 TPM 2 GIT surgery kick off meeting, 15th of June 2023 TPM 3 the second TPM common for ALL surgical specialisations, 6th of October 2023 TPM 4 The third TPM (originally intended for all surgical specialisations, but present only representatives of GIT, neuro and spondylosurgery), 31st of May 2024 TPM 4 The third TPM organised solely for plastic surgeons, 25th of June 2024 LEARNING/TEACHING/TRAINING ACTIVITIES C1 - C3: Blended summer schools of surgery All activities from this category planned in the project proposal were implemented and took place. A detailed description of the activities together with dates, number of participants and explanations of any deviations from the proposal are included in the relevant section of the Beneficiary Module dedicated to Learning, Teaching, Training Activities. This training activity was closely associated with online case study meetings that took place throughout each year of the project duration. Each surgical specialisation organised approximately two online case study meetings per year where they discussed the theory behind and real-patient cases relevant to each year’s topic (this was an opportunity to create project results 2 – case files). The second part of this activity took place physically at MU - Department of Anatomy and Simulation centre. Here, the participants had a chance to practically train and enhance their surgical skills using bodies of donors and simulators. There was also a possibility to record the lectures and/or training sessions in dissection room to produce more project results 1 (i.e. videos). The target participants were PG students specialising in surgery (early-career surgeons) and academics (more senior surgeons and anatomists). Each surgical specialisation had their own summer school of surgery running yearly for the duration of the project (total number of summer schools was 3 for each of the surgical specialisations. C1 + C2 + C3 Spondylosurgery C1 + C2 + C3 Neurosurgery C1 + C2+ C3 Plastic surgery C1 + C2+ C3 GIT surgery C3 anatomists – additional event for anatomists from UNIZG C4 - C15: Short surgical courses + internships All activities from this category planned in the project proposal were implemented and took place. A detailed description of the activities together with dates, number of participants and explanations of any deviations from the proposal are included in the relevant section of the Beneficiary Module dedicated to Learning, Teaching, Training Activities. This activity gave participants the opportunity to observe, assist and discuss real cases at the foreign surgical departments of their specialisation. Furthermore, they had an opportunity to observe surgical procedures and discuss techniques and approaches practiced by the host department. The PG students were able to enhance their knowledge and practical surgical skills as they were able to observe and assist with specialised surgical procedures that they might not necessarily encounter at their home institution. The students were under the mentorship of world-renown senior surgeons and the academics (surgeons) had a great opportunity to instruct and collaborate with the PG students from a department with perhaps a slightly different focus. Therefore, the participating senior surgeons (academics) could gain a different perspective on given case. This activity also helped with increasing of expertise of European surgeons by enhancing the surgical experience of students as well as academics. Moreover, the weekend between the short course and the internship part of the activity was usually filled with a cultural programme and exploration of the surroundings which helped with networking and socialisation of the two collaborating teams. Based on the proposal, different PG students would participate in this activity each year of the project’s duration. This plan was achieved fully by specialisations SPONDYLO and PLASTIC. Some deviations occurred within specialisations NEURO and GIT, these are explained closer in descriptions of the activities. C4 + C5 + C6 Neurosurgery C7 + C8 + C9 Plastic surgery C9 Plastic surgery (an extra activity) C10 + C11 + C12 GIT surgery C13 + C14 + C15 Spondylosurgery C16 - C18: Internships All activities from this category planned in the project proposal were implemented and took place. A detailed description of the activities together with dates, number of participants and explanations of any deviations from the proposal are included in the relevant section of the Beneficiary Module dedicated to Learning, Teaching, Training Activities. This activity was closely tied to the Blended Summer schools of surgery (C1-C3), as these were the internships at one of four MU surgical departments (plastic, neuro, spondylo/orthopaedic, gastrointestinal surgery) for PG students from three partner institutions (each of the fours surgical specialisations). The PG students from their respective field of surgery were able to enhance their practical surgical skill via participation in international internships at the partner institution in their respective field of specialisation. The students were able to observe and assist with specialised surgical procedures they might not necessarily encounter at their home institution. The students were under the mentorship of world-renown experienced surgeons and the academics (surgeons) were in turn able to instruct and collaborate with the PG students from a department with possibly slightly different focus to their own, gaining so a different perspective on a given case. The following internships took place: C16 + C17 + C18 Spondylosurgery C16 + C17 + C18 Neurosurgery C16 + C17 + C18 Plastic surgery C16 + C17 + C18 GIT surgery MULTIPLIER EVENTS The following multiplier events were implemented during the course of the project. Their detailed description can be found in the part of the Beneficiary Module dedicated to Multiplier Events. E1 SCaLPEL Multiplier Event for Neurosurgery within EANS (European Association of Neurosurgical Societies) Course, Czechia This event took place on the 27th of November 2024 as a part of the EANS (European Association of Neurosurgical Societies) 2024 conference in Brno, Czechia. E2 SCaLPEL Multiplier Event within 16th Congress of Croatian Society for endoscopic surgery, Croatia This event took place on the 18th of October 2024 as a part of the 16th Congress of Croatian Society for Endoscopic Surgery in Dubrovnik, Croatia. E3 SCaLPEL Multiplier Event: Growth & Ideas, Italy This event took place on the 26th of November 2023 at the Catholic University of the Sacred Hearth in Rome, Italy. E4 SCaLPEL Multiplier Event: Presentation Summary of the participation of the Department of Adult Spine Orthopaedics, Poland This event titled Podsumowanie udziału Kliniki Ortopedii Kręgosłupa Dorosłych w projekcie unijnym SCaLPEL project ERASMUS+ w latach 2022-2024 took place on the 20th of December 2024 in Gułtowy, Poland. E5 SCaLPEL Multiplier Event for Plastic Surgery within Flap Dissection Course, Czechia This event took place on the 25th of September 2023 in Valtice, Czechia as a part of the Brno Flap Dissection course 2023 which is an international event organised for plastic surgeons from the whole world. E6 SCaLPEL Multiplier Event: Residents’ international experiences - the SCaLPEL project, Italy This event took place on the 11th of October 2024 as part of a 72nd national conference SICPRE (Italian Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery) in Giardini Naxos, Italy.