Endovascular Simulator Is of Benefit in the Acquisition of Basic Skills by Novice Operators

PURPOSE: To determine whether an electronic endovascular simulator exhibited "construct validity," that is, the ability to differentiate between novice and experienced operators of differing levels of experience, and whether training on the simulator led to improved performance, thereby indicating "instructional effectiveness" for basic endovascular tasks. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two separate experiments were performed by using an electronic endovascular simulator. In the first experiment, which was performed to investigate construct validity, the performance of four experienced operators and four novice radiology trainees was compared by using three objective outcome measures. In the second experiment, performed to investigate instructional effectiveness, the authors observed the performance of 14 novice operators before and after training on the device by using similar objective outcome measures as well as subjective measurement of performance from operator and supervisor. RESULTS: In the first experiment, one of the three simulator-derived objective outcome measures for the two subject groups was statistically significant and the other two approached statistical significance. In the second experiment, two of the three objective criteria and all subjective assessments of performance criteria showed a statistically significant improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the endovascular simulator exhibits both construct validity and instructional effectiveness for trainees at an early stage in their acquisition of these skills and support its use in the acquisition of basic endovascular skills.