Hands-on training using human cadavers: An educational method for head and neck brachytherapy.

Abstract

Purpose: To report the impact of didactic lectures with hands-on cadaveric training for head and neck brachytherapy (BT) as part of a teaching course.

Materials and methods: The 1st BT teaching course under Elekta BrachyAcademy for head and neck cancer (HNC) and breast cancer was conducted at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India. Didactic lectures with cadaveric workshop and hands-on training for planning procedure were taught to the participants. Both precourse survey and postcourse evaluation were conducted.

Results: Total 33 radiation oncologists (ROs) and seven medical physicists were trained. The major goals of participating in the master course were to increase confidence in performing brachytherapy and to begin practicing it, as indicated by 23 and 20 responses, respectively. Nine ROs were already doing the BT for HNC, 18 participants were willing to start HN BT procedure within 1year from the training course and five participants did not have the necessary equipment in the postcourse evaluation, 95% and 94% of participants acknowledged adequate coverage of the scope of the topic and the clarity of the content, respectively, as very good or good (5 or 4) in a scale of 5. The training course met the expectation of 94% of the participants. The hands-on training on cadavers for buccal mucosa cancer was considered as very good by 96% of participants and was most useful and needed. One participant insisted on the lacuna of systematic training program for BT in India.

Conclusions: Didactic training with hands-on procedure led to increase in confidence and appears to be one of the suitable methods for training HN BT.