What is Bioskills? | The Association for Bioskills Laboratory Excellence (2024)

Bioskills describes the practice of simulating a medical environment for the education of healthcare professionals, for the purposes of teaching, studying, training or researching, the gross structure of the human body, or performing medical or surgical procedures. Bioskills replicates the patient experience through the use of human, or animal anatomical specimens (cadavers, whole, or in part), medical simulators, or synthetic models.

Bioskills includes activities such as : (a) dissection, (b) removal of, or carrying out a procedure on or in relation to, one or more parts of the body, (c) implanting into the body any: (i) part of a body, (ii) prosthesis, or (iii) implant. Healthcare professionals will practice a procedure in a Bioskills laboratory to learn a new skill, or improve their current skills proficiency prior to conducting the same procedure on a live human or animal.

Healthcare professionals of nearly every type (MD, Surgeons, Dentists, Nurses, NP, EMT, PA, etc…) require some level or form of bioskills training both during their academic career, and continuously during their lifetime of practicing healthcare. Surgery especially remains a skill-based discipline requiring familiarity with instrumentation, regional anatomy, and medical specialty, and competence in performing a range of surgical procedures, for which constant education and re-education is required. In addition, Surgeons do not operate alone, and the entire surgical team of healthcare professionals must be as familiar with the procedure and equipment as the surgeon who leads them. Learning the anatomy of the human body with all relevant nomenclature from pictures or plastic models is a good start, but that’s a like learning how to fly the space shuttle from watching a few launches on TV. Actually getting the chance to see the musculature, the blood vessels, the nerves, of a real human specimen in a bioskills course provides as close to a live patient learning experience as you can get.

There is a continuous requirement for anatomy training for Healthcare professionals, not only to obtain principles of knowledge (which can be gained through academic learning), but also to gain practical Hands-on skills to solidify the learning experience. In addition to the anatomy, the medical professional must learn to use the many and varied devices and instruments, optimizing a procedure approach to that reduce time and improve outcome, . These skills require hands on training to become familiar with the intricacy of the anatomy and the procedure, then more hands on practice is needed to achieve an acceptable degree of competence, and even more repetition and refinement to achieve mastery. Better these skills are acquired and practiced initially in a bioskills “simulated surgery” environment then on live patients who would be obviously at risk.

While a model or simulator is an excellent tool for practicing hand dexterity for a procedure, or getting a general understanding of the anatomy, no model or simulator can fully replicate the detail and tactile feel of real tissue. In addition, although a textbook, model or simulator can describe or represent the “average” anatomy you should expect to find, no two human bodies have identical anatomy, not even identical twins. While all humans do have the same basic anatomical structures (organs, major vessels, nerves, etc..), there are many variations in how that anatomy appears and even where it is located in each person. Factors such as gender, age, weight, health status and even life experiences can influence the anatomical differences that makes each of us a unique individual. In addition, the appearance of normal anatomy in the human body can be severely altered by disease and injury. Cadaver specimen dissection allows healthcare professionals to see both the normal and the pathologic processes that can occur, things like tumor formations, traumatic injury, degradative processes, or the effects of past surgical procedures.

Non-transplantable anatomical materials are utilized in bioskills facilities around the world for hands-on research, education and training. Obtaining and sourcing these anatomical materials is recommended using due diligence with a vetting process outlined in the ABLE 2nd edition Guidelines.

Without bioskills training there are potential risks to the patient from a healthcare professional learning a procedure ‘on the job’. New techniques may be associated with higher rates of surgeon-related complications. For instance, it has been shown that poor surgical exposure and technique in hip replacement can lead to suboptimal implant orientation and subsequent early failure. If these skills can be acquired and practiced in a bioskills simulated surgery environment, then patients are obviously not at risk during this learning process, and the healthcare professional’s competency is greatly improved before treating a live patient.

As an institutional member, your pledged organization will be listed on the ABLE website and you will be permitted to use the ABLE Institutional Member Logo on your website and other marketing materials. This will let your clients, and the public-at-large, know that you are fully committed to laboratory excellence! ABLE institutional membership also grants your organization (2) individual memberships (a $250 value) at no additional cost. Individual members are entitled to vote during elections and on key issues, run for board seats, participate in committees, gain access to supplemental guidance documents, and much more. The annual cost for institutional membership is $1,000. For more information about ABLE, institutional membership, individual memberships, or the ABLE guidelines (which are published, and accessible at no cost, even to non-members), please visit the ABLE website (www.ablebioskills.com) or contact the association through info@ablebioskills.com

If you own and/or operate a Bioskills facility, you are probably already well aware that there is little to no regulation or published guidance available to ensure that your organization is providing the best possible learning environment as well as maintaining an adequate quality system. ABLE sought to change this by first establishing a set of guidelines which are published and available at no cost. ABLE now offers Institutional Membership to organizations that are committed to implementing the ABLE Guidelines for best practices within their policies and procedures. An organization seeking this membership must sign the ABLE Institutional Membership Pledge, attesting to its efforts to abide by the established Guidelines. Bioskills facilities should take advantage of any opportunity to advance their perceived professionalism. Becoming an institutional member of ABLE and sharing with the world that they have made a pledge to follow best practices, is a worthy addition to any Bioskills facility’s list of qualifications.