SurgSchool is an educational surgical app, where high-quality operations can be viewed with the surgeon’s commentary. It was founded in October 2023 by Enrique Casqueiro Cons, a civil engineer by trade with a background in business, and otologist Dr José Carlos Casque, both from Spain. Since then, it has garnered over 1300 users specialising in ENT and neurosurgery, and has been downloaded in over 90 countries. So what exactly is it?
SurgSchool
High-quality (Full HD or 4K) videos of operations are extremely useful for learning and are present across multiple websites, including Professor Quraishi’s well-known ENT Masterclass® Cyber Textbook (www.entmasterclass.com/about-4). SurgSchool works similar to this but is displayed in an app form, including a few additional features. The application is available from both the Android and Apple app stores. An account must then be created to access videos and new users have access to a three-day free trial, after which a €5.99/€17.99 (basic/premium) monthly subscription is required.
"The user has instant access to high-quality operative ENT videos, ranging from a seven-minute endoscopic stapedectomy to a three-hour vestibular schwannoma excision"
App first-look
Once the account has been created, the user has instant access to high-quality operative ENT videos, ranging from a seven-minute endoscopic stapedectomy to a three-hour vestibular schwannoma excision. The app’s user interface is intuitive, simple and practical. There is a filter for native language, which allows toggling between English and Spanish, as well as subspecialty of videos.
Video features
These videos have surgeon voiceover, explaining their thinking and the steps of the operation. Some of these videos also share corresponding cross-sectional imaging for the case and equipment setup. I also noticed one video, which was a recording from a conference lecture of the presenting surgeon.
Premium membership allows for videos to be downloaded for offline viewing, which may be useful for a quick reference before doing an operation. In addition, the operating surgeon of each video can be contacted directly through the app, which allows for further in-depth learning and collaboration by, for example, enquiring as to why the expert used a particular technique, or asking their opinion on other techniques.
App database
Given that the app was only created in 2023, it has a large number of videos to hand; rhinology (36 videos), skull base (five videos), laryngology (one video), and otology (59 videos). At least some of these videos are exclusive to the app and won’t be found elsewhere, and are only released by the approved ‘expert surgeons’ of the app. Currently, most of these surgeons are from Spain, with others from Brazil, Belgium, Australia and France.
SurgSchool’s aim
I contacted Mr Enrique Casqueiro Cons, SurgSchool CEO, to share what the goal of the app was. He states: ‘When we created the SurgSchool app, our initial goal was to allow ENT specialists from around the world to easily and accessibly view surgeries by international expert physicians, both in English and Spanish, thanks to AI-powered dubbing. Our current goal is to enable doctors from all surgical and medico-surgical specialties to view surgeries by international experts in their field, with our algorithm recommending surgeries based on their interests. Over the past six months, three neurosurgical videos have been added to the app under the skull base subtopic.’
In the future, SurgSchool hopes to expand to encompass all surgical and medico-surgical specialties worldwide, including other languages such as French, Italian, German and Portuguese.
Conclusion
The SurgSchool app is an excellent educational resource to have for all levels, from training surgeon to experienced surgeon, and encourages collaboration and continued improvement within our specialty.
