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Video Game Surgery
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Earlier this month a study was published showing that "surgeons who played video games have better keyhole surgery skills than those that did not" (Playing Video Games May Contribute To Keyhole Surgery Skills, Study: Surgeons who play video games more skilled). CNN sums up the results succinctly: Out of 33 surgeons from Beth Israel Medical Center in New York that participated in the study, the nine doctors who had at some point played video games at least three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, performed 27 percent faster, and scored 42 percent better in the test of surgical skills than the 15 surgeons who had never played video games before. Interesting stuff, which bears asking: Are there any virtual surgery video games? Google tells me that there is one game, "Trauma Center: Second Opinion" for the wii. It seems to me that there is plenty of room for games in this niche. What do you think?
I remember reading a few years ago about how Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi got a few million to develop a program along those lines, just a second... ah here we go. Pulse!, "The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab". I'm not sure if it includes surgery, but it has just about everything else. I actually thought about going into serious games after I graduated as opposed to regular game development, since there seems to be quite a niche as you said. Check out the video made by the Orange Country Department of Education on that last site, it's rather interesting.
Trauma Center: Under the Knife for DS. Which may be a bit more relevant as you use the stylus to make incisions, etc...
Quote: Original post by LessBread
Are there any virtual surgery video games? Google tells me that there is one game, "Trauma Center: Second Opinion" for the wii. It seems to me that there is plenty of room for games in this niche. What do you think?
Second Opinion is the sequel to Trauma Centre: Under The Knife on the DS, which garnered quite a few good reviews.
EDIT: Darn slow connection and long search times.
I am led to think that doctors who play video game already had above average high coordination to begin with. Srill, playing games definitely helps develop better hand and eye coordination. Unless you are me and were just an uncoordinated bastard by default.
Note To Self: "Find subject to test surgical powers based on video game prowess... possibly cat... he could use crab claws... or a scorpion tale"
Note To Self: "Find 2 foot scorpion"
Note To Self: "Find 2 foot scorpion"
I think there's more to it than playing video games. Older people are probably more likely to have never played a video game, so perhaps what this study is actually indicating that older surgeons make more mistakes than younger surgeons...I don't really know because I haven't seen the data for myself.
I would imagine some sort of blocking needs to be implemented to reduce the effect of these confounding variables on the study.
I would imagine some sort of blocking needs to be implemented to reduce the effect of these confounding variables on the study.
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Quote: Original post by Zipster
I remember reading a few years ago about how Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi got a few million to develop a program along those lines, just a second... ah here we go. Pulse!, "The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab". I'm not sure if it includes surgery, but it has just about everything else. I actually thought about going into serious games after I graduated as opposed to regular game development, since there seems to be quite a niche as you said. Check out the video made by the Orange Country Department of Education on that last site, it's rather interesting.
The Pulse site is along the lines I was thinking, but the actual software doesn't appear to be publically available - even though it's publically funded" ...almost $10 million in grants through the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Va.
The fact sheet mentions that they have beta testing planned for early 2007, but I don't know how public it would be. Since this isn't an ordinary "game" I imagine it won't be a typical beta test, but maybe open to various universities and medical schools? It's not something I would particularly be interested in beta testing other than to check out just how good a job it does at simulating a health-care environment.
Interesting, but 33 surgeons is hardly a large data set. There could be some correlation, but I am not sure picking one activity and relating it to another activities performance is sound proof. Nothing has made me more skeptical of 'research proves' that you see in the newspaper than when I actually became a researcher myself.
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