A haptic-enabled toolkit for illustration of procedures in surgery (TIPS).

Good surgical training depends greatly on case experiences that have been difficult to model in software since current training technology does not provide the flexibility to teach and practice uncommon procedures, or to adjust a training scenario on the fly. The TIPS kit aims to overcome these limitations. To the expert, it presents visual and haptic tools that make illustrating procedures easy and can model unusual anatomic variations. For a non-specialist, it provides a locally customized learning environment and repeated practice in a safe environment. We used the toolkit to illustrate removal of the adrenal gland.