Are surgeons using video games for training?

If you understand the nature of laparoscopic surgery, it's easy to see why playing video games might increase surgical skill. It's intricate, to say the least. Laparoscopic surgery is kind of like a super-high-tech version of the old game Operation, except that in laparoscopic surgery, messing up means a lot more than getting buzzed.

Laparoscopic surgeons operate on colons, gall bladders and almost anything that can be accessed by a small incision. But they never put their hands inside the patient. Instead, they use robotic controls -- essentially a joystick -- to move instruments inserted into the patient through a tiny incision (it's sometimes referred to as a "keyhole surgery"). They watch what they're doing on a video screen. The ability to make an instantaneous connection between hand motion and remote movement viewed on a screen is crucial, because laparoscopic surgeons don't look at their hands. Their hands are moving joystick controls, not scalpels. As luck would have it, that ability is also the mark of a great gamer. The recent study bears out this correlation.

Thirty-three surgeons participated in a two-part process. First, they played three non-medical video games, including Super Monkey Ball, for 25 minutes. Next, they completed a wide variety of virtual laparoscopic surgery techniques. The researchers measured their accuracy and their completion time in both parts.

The results took into account not only the surgeons' performances during the three-month study, but also factored in their level of training, number of years in practice and how many surgeries they'd performed, as well as their video-gaming habits in real life. When all of the factors were considered, the analysis was dramatic [source: ScienceDaily]:

So what exactly does this mean? Should 24/7 gamers be applying to medical school ASAP? Next, we'll find out how the results relate to the real world.

The results of the study seem pretty conclusive: Gaming skill translates to surgical skill. It's a logical connection. The fine motor skills required in video gaming, along with the enhanced sense of touch and remote movement, are similar to those skills required in surgery. But the study only included 33 surgeons, and the results haven't yet been repeated in a second study, so hospitals aren't yet investing in Xbox stations outside their operating rooms.

Still, the future of surgical training is clear, and actually has been for some time. The military has been using a field-medic simulator called STATCARE for years. STATCARE stands for Simulation Technology Applied to Trauma Care. It's basically a video game that enacts real-world battlefield situations in which a fallen soldier needs medical attention, and the doctors and medics must act quickly. The virtual patient responds to pain and drugs, exhibiting vital signs like a heart beat and blood pressure in response to treatment. The Army discovered some time ago that having medics insert their first IV line in a fellow trainee out in field conditions wasn't the best idea. It's now investing in medical simulators, including a bio-feedback mannequin that actually gets sicker if the doctor messes up.

However, these types of simulators are incredibly expensive, and many medical schools and hospitals can't afford them, let alone afford to purchase enough of them to give everyone the training time necessary to make a real difference. That's where the recent video-gaming study picks up. If it's true that playing regular video games can significantly increase surgical skills, then hospitals interested in providing at least some level of regular, increased training for their surgeons can spend a few hundred dollars on an Xbox instead of a few hundred thousand dollars on a bio-feedback mannequin. It remains to be seen whether the two can deliver comparable results.

For lots more information on video gaming and surgery, follow the links on the next page.

When I first received this article topic, I felt hopeful: Could it be? Are surgeons training via an activity so many people see as pointless (or even destructive)? I've always been bothered by what seems like a blanket disdain for all things video-related in certain segments of our society -- the insistence that TV is evil, movies are trash, and video games are a complete waste of time. My husband and I find ourselves discussing this pretty regularly, possibly because I love TV and he enjoys video games, and we take the position that the automatic rejection of almost any piece of piece of media or technology as truly pointless is unwise.

In writing about the potential for using Monkey Ball, of all things, in surgical training, I felt deliciously validated. Ha! Benefits! Because while I personally see "mere" entertainment as a significant benefit, it's nice to be able to point to something as dramatic and humanity-saving as a 47-percent reduction in surgical errors as a possible result of regular indulgence in gaming. A recent search also uncovered a Nintendo DS game called "Trauma Center" that takes the connection to a more literal level. Brilliant! I'm picturing mandatory gaming labs on surgical rotations.

Sources

Stuff you need to know:

• Performing laparoscopic surgery is a lot like playing a video game, with the finger-triggered action happening remotely via a joystick.

• The impetus for the study that proved a beneficial connection between video-game play and surgical skills was a surgeon who really loved gaming.

• In this 2007 study, surgeons who played video games made up to 47 percent fewer surgical errors compared to surgeons with no gaming history, and they completed surgical tasks up to 39 percent faster.

• The military has been using interactive simulation technology for surgical training for many years, because they can afford it.

• If the results of this single study are borne out in others, it could allow organizations with less funding than the military to incorporate this type of training into their programs via off-the-shelf gaming consoles.

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