Medical student from Leeds announced as competition finalist after video link surgical tasks

Nabeela Janmohamed is one of 40 finalists to make it through after completing a number of surgical tasks at home which were filmed on their mobile for senior surgeons to assess for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Surgical Skills competition

The event, which aims to find the UK and Ireland’s best undergraduate surgical talent, is in its sixth year and has been substantially revised in light of the pandemic.

RCSEd partnered with artificial bodypart manufacturer OrganLike and medical technology leader Medtronic in order to create a special “surgical theatre in a box”, simulating as closely as possible the in-person conditions used in the traditional format of the competition.

More than 1,390 students registered for the competition and 421 made it through to the next stage.

Students were then sent a competition box to their homes, which comprised instruments, a mobile phone/iPad holder and 3D printed bio-synthetic tissue from Organlike, which mimics human tissue.

To help the participants practice, students were able to use Medtronic’s Touch SurgeryTM mobile app, a cloud solution for surgical videos, designed to securely access and share videos.

If Nabeela is crowned the winner of the competition, she will win a 'Medtronic Experience' supplied by the competition sponsor, offering an incredible opportunity to gain hands on experience with the latest surgical equipment, as well as a trophy.

All participants in the competition also receive a certificate of participation and two years’ affiliation with The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Professor Angus Watson, Member of the RSCEd Council and organiser of the Surgical Skills competition, said: “The pandemic meant we had to completely rethink the format of the competition and has actually provided us with the opportunity to reach a wider pool of medical students, as well as leading to the creation of this fantastic kit which has allowed students to practise basic surgical skills at home.

“We wanted to widen the competition out to all medical students in a bid to encourage more students into the surgical profession and to also help convey the message that basic surgical skills are important for so many medical professions aside from those considering a surgical career."