by Playfuls Staff |
20th February 2007
In a study involving 12 surgeons and 21 surgical residents,
video game skill was correlated with laparoscopic surgery skill as assessed
during a simulated surgery skills [more] course, according to a report in the February
issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
James C. Rosser Jr., M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York,
and colleagues asked 33 surgeons (21 residents and 12 attending physicians)
about their video game–playing habits, then assessed their performance at the
Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program, a one-and-a-half day
course that scores surgeons on time and errors during simulated surgery drills.
During the study, conducted from May through August, 2002, the surgeons also
played three video games for 25 minutes while the researchers assessed their
gaming skills.
Of the surgeons who participated in the study, 15 reported
never playing video games, nine reported playing zero to three hours per week,
and nine reported playing more than three hours per week at the height of their
video game playing. “Surgeons who had played video games in the past for more
than three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors [in the Top Gun course],
were 27 percent faster and scored 42 percent better overall than surgeons who
never played video games. Current video game players made 32 percent fewer
errors, were 24 percent faster and scored 26 percent better overall than their
non-player colleagues,” the authors write. Those in the top one-third of video
gaming skill made 47 percent fewer errors, performed 39 percent faster and
scored 41 percent better on the overall Top Gun score than those in the bottom
one-third.
“Training curricula that include video games may help thin
the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such
as laparoscopic surgery,” the authors conclude. “Video games may be a practical
teaching tool to help train surgeons.”
