Project Updates

The last couple of months have been taken up with the completion of both of the Basic and Intermediate Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy courses in the Diploma Centres, further development of the remaining courses to be delivered and an opportunity for the partners to meet to review progress at the partner meeting held in Rome in May.

Well-attended Basic courses were organised in several new target centres which are working hard to become recognised GESEA Diploma Centres. The first of these took place in Debrecen, Hungary which was supported by EAGS who are the mentors for this centre. A second took place in June in Pleven, Bulgaria which is mentored by UNINA. Also in June, a Basic course was organised in Tallinn, Estonia mentored by UNITO while GLSMED were the mentors for a Basic course organised in Barcelona in early July. Meanwhile both UNINA and CICE organised Intermediate Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy courses in their centres in Naples and Clermont-Ferrand.

Evaluation and assessment has moved forward significantly in recent months with the development of several new resources that can be used in the evaluation process as well as the introduction of a strategy for the evaluation of several cadres of course participants by the lead person in the different Diploma and Training Centres which will come into play for many of the courses in the final 6 months of the project.

Work on the creation of the online training materials continues apace and plans are now in place for the remaining courses which are scheduled for Autunm which includes the Robotics courses organised with SERGS which will be held in Rome in November. There will also be a final round of trainer training in Rome in December. From a dissemination point of view, the website and social media channels continue to be maintained and the partners are looking forward to raising the profile of the project generally at the forthcoming ESGE Congress taking place in Marseille at the end of October.

Project management continues to run smoothly steered through the regular monthly meetings of the Project Steering Committee. Now that the end of the project is in sight, the partners will take some time at the end of the summer to review their spending and plan for the final activities. A well-attended partner meeting in Rome in May provided a good opportunity to review progress, share experience and make plans for the further project work to be completed.

Over the past 3 months, 20 different GESEA4EU courses have been successfully delivered in several Member States. During this time, the team have been working hard to ensure the courses delivered fully conform to the GESEA4EU goals as the project moved into its fully operational phase at the start of the second year of the project.

February began with a round of Basic and Intermediate courses in Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy aimed at Specialists in GESEA Diploma Centres in Portugal, Slovenia and Greece. Attendance levels were high and the feedback generally positive. In March, similar courses were held in Italy, Belgium and Slovenia with the first Train the Trainers in Robotics course taking place in Rome. April began with the second round of Train the Trainers for Specialists courses taking place in Rome by which time over 70% of the targeted numbers of trainers in Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy in the GESEA4EU project had completed their training. Further Basic and Intermediate courses aimed at Specialists took place in Diploma Centres in Torino and Naples, while Basic courses took place in three new target centres, in Spain, Croatia and Poland.

At the same time as these courses have been underway, the project team has been working hard on the assessment and evaluation aspects, making sure that feedback is captured and that the effective evaluation of course participants is underway. Localisation has also been of significant interest as the remaining recordings of lectures and presentations is being carried out. Partners have been attentive to providing images and short reports about their dissemination actions related to the courses in particular, as well as to the project in general, during this time period.

The Project Steering Committee (PSC) has been meeting regularly during this period and as well as following the course activities closely and acting directly to resolve any issues, has also been to the forefront in ensuring that the project interim report was successfully submitted by the deadline agreed with the European Commission. This report involved the active contribution of all partners in reporting both their activities as well as on the financial aspects of their participation in the project.

Finally, the project management team was busy in the preparation of the next partner meeting when all partners are expected to meet in person in Rome in early May.

These past 3 months have been really busy as the GESEA4EU courses have started to be delivered in earnest and the work of the initial nine months of the project begins to bear fruit.

During November, the project partners met in person in Leuven, Belgum for the second partner meeting. All partners were represented, and it was a really useful opportunity to iron out any misunderstandings about the project and how the courses due to be run in the Diploma and Target Centres would be organised. Aspects such as the necessary qualifications of those planning to take part in the Train the Trainer and other courses were discussed in depth as well as the Train the Trainer course itself. Many of the video recordings necessary for the courses were captured and the standardised approach to course delivery was further developed.

The first Train the Trainer (TTT) courses took place in December in Rome with both the courses for Specialists and for Nurses attracting a full cohort of trainees. Led by Prof. Tanos and facilitated by Dr. Campolo, these training events went really well, feedback was largely positive from trainees and much of the training was recorded so the different talks and demos can be re-used on future occasions.

In early January, the first Basic Laparoscopy & Hysteroscopy course in a Target Centre took place in Dublin, Ireland with the support and mentorship of trainers from Diploma Centres ULG and EAGS in Belgium, both partners in GESEA4EU. Later in January, Diploma Centre and partner CICE, organised their first Basic Laparoscopy & Hysteroscopy course in Clermont-Ferrand in France. These courses have provided really useful input to the project as a whole as the organisational support to the Diploma and Target Centres becomes more streamlined. The online platform providing the resources trainees need in advance of the on-site elements of the courses is now fully operational and available to all trainees.

During this period, the management team have continued to meet as they gear up to mark the first year’s anniversary by preparing the first interim report. Despite the many challenges that cross-border projects of this type always encounter, it’s clear that the partners now have a much better picture of the work to be done in the coming months. With over 20 courses scheduled for the next 3 months, it going to be a busy time, this next round of courses includes another round of TTT courses as well as the first of the Robotics courses.

In overall terms, these three months have provided an opportunity to put several operational structures into practice, with regular meetings of the project steering committee, another online meeting in September for all partners and planning for the second partner meeting scheduled to take place in early November.

During August, the main objective for the team was to prepare the agenda for the courses taking place from November through to June 2024. This required a lot of follow up and discussion with the local Diploma centres and those responsible for the different modules. The results of this work culminated in the preparation and submission of a deliverable which provides a full agenda for all the courses as well as summaries of all the courses taking place in all partner languages, In September and October, work to prepare the courses continued which included recordings of the many video elements that are included in the online and hybrid courses. The two deliverables providing the content as well as the selection criteria were also developed during this period and will be submitted to the EC in early November.

The ESGE Congress took place at the start of October and the project was highly visible both in the conference programme with references to the project in several presentations as well as having a well visited project booth on the ESGE stand at the exhibition.

Work to plan the first official Train The Trainer courses for both the sessions aimed at specialists as well as those aimed at nurses planned for December 2023 took place during this period and both courses lare now all set for delivery in Rome.

Another important step taken during his period was to identify the 9 target centres that will be involved in the training programme. It was important to already take this step in order to prepare trainers for these centres and to establish the important Mentor/Mentee relationships that are fundamental to the project as a whole. These centres are in Spain, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Poland, Ireland and Greece.

Promotion and dissemination of project activities continues apace with many of the project channels starting to achieve impact, the project team also supported making the project more visible at important events for the target audience such as SERGS and ENTOG.

Since the beginning of May, the main focus of the project has been on planning for the busy autumn period when much of the GESEA4EU training will really get off the ground starting with the Train the Trainer activities.

The Project Management team based in ESGE has had plenty to do with ongoing administrative work in support of the project. The Project Steering Committee is now meeting regularly and the first plenary session for all partners took place online at the start of July and provided a good opportunity to bring everyone up to date with progress. Partners will meet again online in September and then face-to-face in November.

The preparatory activities which are at the heart of WP2 are led by EAGS and include the different tasks necessary to launch the training later in the year. The first major outcome of the project, the Standardised GESEA Training Modules Report was published at the end of May and the team has since been working hard on preparing the agenda for the training courses as well as all the materials necessary for successful realisation of the courses. To date part of the agenda is finalised and much of the material required is either finalised or an advanced state of development. Discussions with leadership of WP3 Training Activities and WP4 Assessment and Validation are ongoing in order to have a clear idea of shared responsibilities and the tasks ahead.

Meanwhile the Dissemination and Communication team involved in WP5 has continued to support partners in their dissemination work and are focusing their efforts now on two key events coming up in Autumn, the ESGE Congress and the ENTOG conference. A project flyer in all partner languages is now available and plans for a short promotional video are underway.

GESEA4EU got off to a great start with a well attended kick-off meeting hosted by ESGE in Leuven, Belgium at the beginning of February. During this meeting partners had an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the structure of the project and how the various planned activities will take place. Even though practically everyone already knows one another, for many of the partners this is their first European Commission supported project of this kind, and so a lot of effort went into familiarising everyone with the necessary procedures.

Over the first three months, the Management team (WP1) have been busy putting in place the practices and procedures necessary for the project and in reporting the achievement of the first two milestones; the successful kick-off meeting in February and the official launch of the project which took place at the end of April. They have also been working hard to support the partners in establishing suitable reporting processes and in getting the management structure off the ground.

Our colleagues leading on the Preparatory Activities (WP2), have been busy completing the initial tasks of mapping and categorizing simulation tools and defining standardised training modules for healthcare professionals which will culminate in the finalisation of a report to the EC presenting the Standardised GESEA Training Modules to be submitted at the end of May. This involves conducting an ESGE survey among relevant partners and analysing the collected data.

The team leading on Dissemination and Communication (WP5) have completed their first round of important tasks which involved preparing and submitting the Dissemination and Communication plan which was submitted at the end of April. They have also developed the Branding Guide and are working on a set of templates and other materials to assist GESEA4EU partners in their work to promote GESEA4EU activities.