Current students, faculty, and staff
At the intersection of art, science, and medicine, OCAD U Associate Professor Francis LeBouthillier is reshaping how surgeons prepare for complex operations.
A leader in the field of medical simulation, LeBouthillier has developed a groundbreaking method for creating highly detailed silicone models used in surgical training.
His latest innovation — a lifelike model of a uterus and fetus with spina bifida — allows surgeons to practice complex, high-risk procedures in a safe and controlled environment.
By refining their techniques on models, before operating on real patients, surgeons can reduce risks, improve outcomes and advance the standard of care in fetal medicine.
The lifelike models are currently used by surgeons at the Ontario Fetal Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital, where surgeons perform complex in-utero procedures. The Centre, a partnership between Mount Sinai Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), is the first of its kind in Canada, and one of only a few centres worldwide, to offer a fully comprehensive range of fetal therapies.
For more than 20 years, LeBouthillier has collaborated with surgeons around the world to design and manufacture innovative surgical simulators now used in leading hospitals internationally.
A graduate of the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University) and York University, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts degree, LeBouthillier draws on his background in sculpture, performance, and installation art to bring an artist’s perspective to medical innovation. His work exemplifies how creative research can lead to real-world impact — improving care and saving lives.
OCAD U caught up with Professor LeBouthillier to discuss his work:
What is the focus of your latest research project?
I have been working with fetal surgeons and researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital, and from around the world, for over 20 years. In 2023, Dr. Tim Van Mieghem, maternal fetal medicine specialist at Mount Sinai and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, invited me to put on my “thinking cap” to develop a high-fidelity simulator for fetal surgical training with the da Vinci Xi robot. This most recent project, “Excised Uterus for Spina Bifida Repair”, required me to create a simulated environment, from a variety of synthetic materials, for the surgeons to practice performing complex laparoscopic operations in utero. This project has been in development for over two years.
Why is this important?
According to Dr. Van Mieghem, “this pioneering technology is currently not offered for spina bifida repair in any other clinical setting around the world… and this research could transform the way this fetal surgery is performed not only at Mount Sinai Hospital, but globally.”
What drew you into this field of study in the first place? Was there a turning point or defining moment?
In my early 20s (over 40 years ago now), I was studying visual arts, with a focus on sculpture. One of my instructors approached me to help her partner (an obstetrician) by sculpting a fetus to be used to train doctors in the safe and appropriate use of forceps. This work was intriguing and I found that my creative problem-solving abilities that I used in making sculptures were easily transferred to this challenge. This practical application of my skills was incredibly rewarding; to see something that I had made helping others in the world.
How do you see this work contributing to your field or affecting people’s lives in the real world?
I’m very fortunate to witness the simulators that we have developed being used in hospitals around the world to train fetal surgeons in potentially life-saving surgeries. Knowing that this work is being done to promote fetal health and to help families brings me great joy.
Are you working with any collaborators, institutions, or funding bodies on this project?
I have been collaborating with Dr. Tim Van Miegham on this project, maternal fetal medicine specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. This research project has been funded by a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Also, I’m grateful for the support of OCAD U, as this project was developed during my sabbatical.
What do you hope people—both inside and outside of your field—take away from your research?
It is important to know that I’m not specifically trained as a designer of surgical simulators.
I draw from my multi-disciplinary background as a visual artist, combining my critical thinking and problem-solving skills with an insatiable appetite for exploring new technologies and materials.
I bring this diverse skill set to my collaboration with amazing fetal surgeons to create some of the most sophisticated and highly representational fetal surgical simulators.
These simulators are tools for teaching surgeons how to kinesthetically and visually navigate complex surgical scenarios in a safe and controlled environment.
I have developed these surgical simulators with the passion and commitment that I also bring to my teaching of art students. In my teaching, I use an embodied and hands-on approach to empower students in their development of skills needed to understand complex, creative challenges and to support them in actualizing their creative potential in the world.