Overview

• ESIST combines deep learning with a custom extended-reality headset to guide residents through placing a renal artery clamp on a 3D-printed kidney phantom with 99.9% accuracy
• A first-person camera streams real-time feedback and corrective prompts without an instructor, enabling all 17 trainees to complete the critical nephrectomy step successfully
• Post-training surveys found that 100% of participants rated ESIST as having great educational value and endorsed its autonomous teaching approach
• Funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Science Foundation, the study explores cost reduction and standardized instruction during a shortage of surgical proctors
• Researchers are now engineering more complex synthetic cadaver models to extend ESIST’s autonomous training from a single procedural component to entire operations