CDA Essentials 2018 • Volume 6 • Issue 1

D ental educators are always looking for new ways to assess students, to ensure they have the technical skills to perform the necessary techniques upon graduation. “Within dentistry and oral surgery, we tend to examine knowledge and problem-solving ability with multiple-choice, written and oral examinations,” says Dr. Caminiti. “Although these are useful to see how decisions are made and the knowledge of our candidates, it doesn't really assess the raison d'etre of OMFS, that of performing surgery.” To that end, Dr. Caminiti and his team built upon existing Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSAT) examinations in other surgical domains and designed a test that specifically targets the technical skills related to oral surgery. “These OSATS exams have now been validated and ORAL& MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY Technical Skills Exam Makes its Debut In 2018, theUniversity of Toronto faculty of dentistry launched the first examdesigned to objectively assess andmeasure the technical skills of the graduating residents of its Oral andMaxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) specialty program. Dr. MarcoCaminiti, assistant professor and director of theOMFS graduate specialty program, was part of a team that led the development and implementation of this hands-on examination for surgical trainees. are a core competency for obtaining Fellowship status for some specialties, and the trend of using similar exams is increasing,” says Dr. Caminiti. Dubbed the “OMOSAT” (oral and maxillofacial surgery objective structured assessment of technical skills), the inaugural exam took place at the Surgical Skills Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, where Dr. Caminiti serves as director of the graduate OMFS residency program. The exam consisted of 8 stations (hand tying & instrument recognition; tracheostomy; TMJ arthroscopy; skin harvest/ grafting; microvascular anastomosis; osteotomies; wiring & plate bending; and dental implant placement) and within each station there was an expert in that particular field. “Although there could have been other categories, these 8 were chosen as they were Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and could be accurately measured on the high fidelity, bench top, microvascular models procured for the exam,” he explains. The residents were also blinded to the exam so they didn't know its full parameters or what station or challenge was coming next. As for the outcomes of the OMOSAT exam, Dr. Caminiti says the initial results showed different gradations of ability, based on years of training and experience. “It showed that an intern or a junior resident did in fact score lower than a senior resident or an expert in the field,” he says. “This allowed me to discern that skill levels gradually increase over years of study.” But the most encouraging part for Dr. Caminiti was that all parties involved in the exam benefitted from the experience. “It was an incredible teaching tool, the N ews and E vents 20 | 2019 | Issue 1