Hand-e and Plastic Surgery Resident Training

Abstract

Hand-e is the electronic online learning platform for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH). It began as an idea from a group of young leaders in 2011, with the idea of creating a central repository for all ASSH educational material, including books, journals, videos, webinars and annual meeting content, and free-standing continuing medical education courses, to create a “go to” source for upper extremity education. This was initially known as the Surgery of the Hand and Upper Extremity Hand Online Resource Network. Through a series of meetings, ASSH merged the needed software programs to make this reality and went live in early 2014. Since inception, we have added content and as of the time of this meeting, have over 3500 videos, including surgical techniques/surgical skills videos, presentations from annual meetings, instructional courses, symposia, and more. We also have over 1200 images and 1300 text items, including meeting handouts, abstracts, and similar items. The content is organized and searchable under the Curriculum of Hand Surgery (educational content categorized by anatomical location and tissue type such as hand and wrist, forearm, nerve, and pediatrics) web collections including surgical skills, meeting content, webinars, and education resources. We also have content pertaining to practice management, including performance metrics, such as meaningful use, physician’s quality reporting system, and outcomes. There are several sections of specific interest to plastic surgery resident education, include a reading list as compiled by the resident education committee. This includes over 100 articles on various hand surgery conditions, including both “classic” articles and recent review articles. Those articles published in the Journal of Hand Surgery are available, and those published in other journals have a link to the abstract in PubMed. The comprehensive review of hand surgery (board review course) recorded, with presentations (audio and video) and power point handouts, gives an evidence-based review of topics covering the entire breadth of hand surgery. We also have surgical skills videos demonstrating multiple surgical techniques on live patients and cadavers. We are continuously adding content and are in the process of developing educational modules, including pre/post questions and important videos for the topic, such as review courses, selected review, and classic articles to provide a review of the topic, and anticipate having the first module available by late 2016. Hand-e access is an ASSH member benefit, and we have set it up to allow plastic surgery residents to have access to the content. This requires signing up through ASSH to create log-in information, providing residency program information and graduation date. We are also offering temporary access for plastic surgery residency program directors at no charge requiring similar registration through ASSH.