Filters

2018 - 201922020 - 20263
Reset filters

Settings

Author: Topalli, DamlaPublication Index: PubMed

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    A User Task Design Notation for Improved Software Design
    (Peerj inc, 2021) Ozcan, Eda; Topalli, Damla; Tokdemir, Gul; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil
    System design is recognized as one of the most critical components of a software system that bridges system requirements and coding. System design also has a significant impact on testing and maintenance activities, and on further improvements during the lifespan of the software system. Software design should reflect all necessary components of the requirements in a clear and understandable manner by all stakeholders of the software system. To distinguish system elements, separation of concerns in software design is suggested. In this respect, identification of the user tasks, i.e., the tasks that need to be performed by the user, is not currently reflected explicitly in system design documents. Our main assumption in this study is that software quality can be improved significantly by clearly identifying the user tasks from those that need to be performed by the computer system itself. Additionally, what we propose has the potential to better reflect the user requirements and main objectives of the system on the software design and thereby to improve software quality. The main aim of this study is to introduce a novel notation for software developers in the frame of UML Activity Diagram (UML-AD) that enables designers to identify the user tasks and define them separately from the system tasks. For this purpose, an extension of UML-AD, named UML-ADE (UML-Activity Diagram Extended) was proposed. Afterwards, it was implemented in a serious game case for which the specification of user tasks is extremely important. Finally, its effectiveness was analyzed and compared to UML-AD experimentally with 72 participants. The defect detection performance of the participants on both diagrams with two real-life serious game scenarios was evaluated. Results show a higher level of understandability for those using UML-ADE, which in turn may indicate a better design and higher software quality. The results encourage researchers to develop specific design representations dedicated to task design to improve system quality and to conduct further evaluations of the impact of these design on each of the above mentioned potential benefits for the software systems.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    Citation - WoS: 9
    Eye-Hand Coordination Patterns of Intermediate and Novice Surgeons in a Simulation-Based Endoscopic Surgery Training Environment
    (int Group Eye Movement Research, 2018) Topalli, Damla; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil
    Endoscopic surgery procedures require specific skills, such as eye-hand coordination to be developed. Current education programs are facing with problems to provide appropriate skill improvement and assessment methods in this field. This study aims to propose objective metrics for hand-movement skills and assess eye-hand coordination. An experimental study is conducted with 15 surgical residents to test the newly proposed measures. Two computer-based both-handed endoscopic surgery practice scenarios are developed in a simulation environment to gather the participants' eye-gaze data with the help of an eye tracker as well as the related hand movement data through haptic interfaces. Additionally, participants' eye-hand coordination skills are analyzed. The results indicate higher correlations in the intermediates' eye-hand movements compared to the novices. An increase in intermediates' visual concentration leads to smoother hand movements. Similarly, the novices' hand movements are shown to remain at a standstill. After the first round of practice, all participants' eye-hand coordination skills are improved on the specific task targeted in this study. According to these results, it can be concluded that the proposed metrics can potentially provide some additional insights about trainees' eye-hand coordination skills and help instructional system designers to better address training requirements.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Review
    Citation - WoS: 7
    Citation - Scopus: 7
    A Systematic Review on Classification and Assessment of Surgical Skill Levels for Simulation-Based Training Programs
    (Elsevier Ireland Ltd, 2023) Tonbul, Gokcen; Topalli, Damla; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil
    Background: Nowadays, advances in medical informatics have made minimally invasive surgery (MIS) procedures the preferred choice. However, there are several problems with the education programs in terms of surgical skill acquisition. For instance, defining and objectively measuring surgical skill levels is a challenging process. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to conduct a literature review for an investigation of the current approaches for classifying the surgical skill levels and for identifying the skill training tools and measurement methods.Materials and Methods: In this research, a search is conducted and a corpus is created. Exclusion and inclusion criteria are applied by limiting the number of articles based on surgical education, training approximations, hand movements, and endoscopic or laparoscopic operations. To satisfy these criteria, 57 articles are included in the corpus of this study.Results: Currently used surgical skill assessment approaches have been summarized. Results show that various classification approaches for the surgical skill level definitions are being used. Besides, many studies are con-ducted by omitting particularly important skill levels in between. Additionally, some inconsistencies are also identified across the skill level classification studies.Conclusion: In order to improve the benefits of simulation-based training programs, a standardized interdisci-plinary approach should be developed. For this reason, specific to each surgical procedure, the required skills should be identified. Additionally, appropriate measures for assessing these skills, which can be defined in simulation-based MIS training environments, should be refined. Finally, the skill levels gained during the developmental stages of these skills, with their threshold values referencing the identified measures, should be redefined in a standardized manner.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    Citation - WoS: 7
    Citation - Scopus: 7
    Classification of Intermediate and Novice Surgeons' Skill Assessment Through Performance Metrics
    (Sage Publications inc, 2019) Topalli, Damla; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil
    Background. Endoscopic surgeries have become an alternative for open procedures whenever possible. For such types of operations, surgeons are required to gain several skills, whose development needs hands-on practice. Accordingly, gaining these skills today is a challenge for surgical education programs. Despite the development of several technology-enhanced training environments, there are still problems to better integrate these technologies into educational programs. For an appropriate integration, it is critical to assess the skill levels and adapt the training content according to the trainees' requirements. In the literature, there exist several methods for assessing these skill levels. However, there are still problems in practice for objective and repetitive assessment. Methods. The present study aims to estimate the skill levels of participants in surgical training programs in an objective manner by collecting experimental data from residents in an endoscopic surgical simulation environment and gathering performance metrics. Results. It is shown that, by comparing the results of a number of classification algorithms for the best accuracy estimation and feature set, the "novice" and "intermediate" skill levels can be estimated with an accuracy of 86%. Conclusions. The outcomes help surgical educators and instructional system designers to better assess the skill levels of the trainees and guide them accordingly. In addition, objective assessments as highlighted in this study can be beneficial when designing technology-enhanced adaptive learning environments.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    Citation - Scopus: 1
    Randomised Comparison Between Navigation and Non-Navigation Camera Control Performance in a Surgical Simulation Task Using a Haptic Device Interface
    (Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications, 2026) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Topalli, Damla; Tuner, Emre; Berker, Mustafa
    Introduction:Navigation skills for controlling the camera in the surgical field are critical for many minimally invasive surgery (MIS) procedures. Currently, endoscopes lack integrated navigation aids, making camera control a challenging task. This experimental study aims to investigate the effect of navigation guidance on the performance of beginners.Patients and Methods:A custom computer-based simulation environment was developed for this study, featuring two conditions - one with navigation guidance and one without - focussed on a camera-cleaning task. Participants (64 beginners) were randomly assigned to one of these groups and used two haptic devices to simulate the endoscope and surgical tools.Results:Participants in the guided condition performed significantly better than those in the unguided condition. Notably, female participants completed the task in significantly less time under the guided condition compared to the unguided one.Conclusion:These findings suggest that incorporating navigation aids into endoscope interfaces could improve user performance, especially for beginners. Medical device manufacturers should consider adding navigation features to enhance usability. In addition, simulation-based instructional systems should integrate navigation aids to better support surgical training.