Surgeons who play video games more skilled

[Bill5461]

Updated: 3:48 p.m. ET Feb 20, 2007

Playing video games appears to help surgeons with skills that truly count: how well they operate using a precise technique, a study said on Monday.
There was a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon’s capabilities performing laparoscopic surgery in the study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.

Laparoscopy and related surgeries involve manipulating instruments through a small incision or body opening where the surgeon’s movements are guided by watching a television screen.

Video game skills translated into higher scores on a day-and-half-long surgical skills test, and the correlation was much higher than the surgeon’s length of training or prior experience in laparoscopic surgery, the study said.
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.

full story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17242911/?GT1=9033

[SilverSpoon]

No way, video games only cause death and violence. Surgeons who play them will intentionally kill their patients.

[MSFixR]

That is probably true of fighter jet pilots also.

[Bill5461]

Originally Posted by SilverSpoon

No way, video games only cause death and violence. Surgeons who play them will intentionally kill their patients.

As I read this Silverspoon, I had high hopes for you

[MSFixR]

Originally Posted by Bill5461

As I read this Silverspoon, I had high hopes for you

You would trust Spoon with a scalpel in his hand?

That would be the day the world would join forces to take him down. Then, and only then, would we find world peace.

[SilverSpoon]

But there'd still be world hunger and poverty, so nobody wins!

[Blackmask]

“Parents should not see this study as beneficial if their child is playing video games for over an hour a day,” Gentile said. “Spending that much time playing video games is not going to help their child’s chances of getting into medical school.”

Maybe it'll become a prac part of an entrance exam.

[open32]

I dont know about this study. If all these people wanting to be docs start playing video games to improve there coordination and precision, they better spend enough time studying where the heart is located.

[MSFixR]

Surgeons are kind of hyper anyway, they need something to take their minds off the slice 'n dice.

[Bill5461]

I thought that's what the scrub nurses were for

[MSFixR]

Have you seen the way scrub nurses dress these days in the OR? You can't tell if it’s a he/she/it! Besides if it’s me on the table, I want everyone to keep their minds on the business at hand. The extra curricular activities are only for after the (successful) procedure.

[Bill5461]

Good point!

[Blackmask]

Surgeons are kind of hyper anyway, they need something to take their minds off the slice 'n dice.

I thought that's what prescription drugs and alcohol hidden in the bottom drawer were for.