Could you introduce yourself and tell us about the creation of TeebPedia?

Soumeya : I am Belhimer Soumeya, a medical doctor and a third-year resident in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine in Algeria. TeebPedia is an Algerian start-up certified by the National Labelling Commission, with the mission of becoming a leading national player in information, software, and services dedicated to the training of healthcare professionals.

The story of TeebPedia as a start-up began with a collaborative initiative. Initially, we mainly organized training activities, such as revision sessions. During the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, these sessions gradually moved online through video conferences, due to the health situation and the lack of suitable infrastructure for distance learning in Algeria.

We started with the resources available to us and gradually managed to bring together more than 145 university hospital physicians from across the country to take part in our training activities. These included professors and assistant professors, who dedicated their time and expertise to sharing their knowledge and training younger healthcare professionals.

This momentum also extended to our YouTube channel, which gradually became a dedicated platform for sharing medical content. Today, it has more than 60,000 subscribers and over 2 million cumulative views, reflecting the growing interest among healthcare professionals in accessible, high-quality educational content.

From 2022 onwards, we sought to further structure and professionalize our approach after obtaining the start-up label, awarded by the National Labelling Commission in December 2021. Today, we are developing our activities around medical education, with the ambition of integrating a technological dimension, both through the educational formats we offer and through simulation tools.

What do you see as the main strengths of diSplay U/S, and how does it meet the needs of the Algerian market?

Soumeya : The goal is to be part of this evolution and contribute to making ultrasound education more accessible. Today, many organizations offer intensive two- or three-day training courses. However, these are often still largely theoretical. And even when practical training is included, the number of cases covered remains limited, with very few, if any, pathological cases. With diSplay U/S, we of course provide guided learning to support users throughout their training, but above all, access to a wide range of clinical cases. This is essential, as it allows learners to encounter the most common pathologies, depending on the organs being examined and the different modules available.

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What challenges have you faced with these projects, and how did you overcome them?

“65% of young obstetrician-gynecologists turn to online theoretical training for fetal ultrasound. Studies found that the majority of available training on this subject is costly and inaccessible, creating a gap between trainers and users.”

Frédéric Glicenstein, President AGOF

Frédéric : In 2022, an AGOF survey among our representatives revealed that 65% of young obstetrician-gynecologists turn to online theoretical training for fetal ultrasound. Studies found that the majority of available training on this subject is costly and inaccessible, creating a gap between trainers and users.

So, we worked closely with InSimo to develop a 5-episode webseries on fetal ultrasound, integrated with the diSplay U/S simulator. This webseries was also made possible with support from LEN AXIS.

The goal is to offer an immersive educational tool that allows interns and young doctors to learn fetal ultrasound for free, without constraints of location, time, or resources.

Pierre-Jean : What’s interesting is the creation of high-quality content with a strong partner and expert involvement. They developed the educational framework, which allowed us to build the technical and simulation components to enable users to transition from theory to practice.

The series structure is also very engaging: well-made expert videos, demonstrations with real patient cases, and hands-on practice using the diSplay U/S simulator on their smartphones, replicating the exact steps and images from the diagnostic process.

1. The gall bladder
2. Liver, stomach, spleen: general description
3. The ductus venosus
4. When the mesentery turns over
5. Hepatic vascularization

? Log in to diSplay U/S online ultrasound simulator to practice.

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Barbara: “Later, the ambition will be to integrate surgical scenarios by moving from basic exercises to more complex ones. Users will have to perform sutures during surgical procedures within their anatomical context, such as bowel anastomoses, which obviously requires additional technological bricks than the suture alone.”

Pierre-Jean: “In the robotics sector, there are many possible fields of application for simulation, beyond pure training. We imagine a future where simulation will be able to help in the planning of certain surgeries, and one day perhaps in the automatic piloting of the robots assisted by the operative planning. There are even applications in the design of these robots. Plenty of fields related to training bring innovation in simulation around robotic surgery. There is a significant potential for development.”

“Dynamics and inextensibility of the thread: two decisive criteria”

Why focus on suturing? What technical challenge does this represent?

Brice : “Technically, the problem with realism comes mainly from the inextensible aspect of the thread. The threads generally had an elastic behavior, as this is easier to simulate, but this is not the required level of realism.”

Pierre-Jean : “Add to that the inertia. In many simulators, there is a floating effect which makes the thread appear to be slightly moving. This facilitates the simulation by avoiding collisions, but it creates an environment that lacks fluidity. The two decisive criteria on this project are therefore dynamics and inextensibility.”

Brice : “Another technical challenge is the knot gesture. One the gesture is made, it is usually an animation that takes over. Therefore, the knot is frozen, which doesn’t allow any more interactions and therefore no possibility of readjusting or sliding, which is something very important.”

Brice : “For us it was a real deficit, because we implemented things without really knowing their pedagogical usefulness, or if it was realistic. (…) I immediately thought of Barbara because we knew each other from IRCAD, and so in early 2020, the collaboration was born.”

Pierre-Jean : “Back then, we did not yet have a functional suture simulation, and we couldn’t even properly catch the thread. The project did not allow an interactive demonstrator to be presented on these features. So we started working with Barbara to identify ideas for educational scenarios that we wanted to integrate into the simulator”.

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