Study: gaming improves surgical skills
In a recent study made out of 33 surgeons from the Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York, it was found out that the nine doctors who had at some point actually held a controller in hand and played a video game at least three hours a 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. This, we guess, gives us a new meaning to the phrase “playing like a life depended on it.”
The study, published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, correlates video gaming skills and a surgeon’s capabilities to perform laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopy is surgery where the surgeon makes a small incision in the patient’s body and performs the surgery by manipulating instruments guided by actual video images of the victim’s insides watched through a TV screen.
According to the study, the capacity of a surgeon to perform better at laparoscopy is more related to their videogaming skills than the length of their training or how many laparoscopic surgeries they’ve performed in the past. This, the study said, further proves past findings that playing videogames gives a person finer motor skills, better hand-eye coordination skills, visual attention, depth perception and computer competency.
But take note, kids – this finding can’t be used as an excuse to play computer games all day. Surgeons may benefit from casual gaming, but staying in front of the TV and the gaming console for a considerably long period of time will not get you to medical school. Hitting the books and doing your homework is still the best way to go.
Via News.com
In a recent study made out of 33 surgeons from the Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York, it was found out that the nine doctors who had at some point actually held a controller in hand and played a video game at least three hours a 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. This, we guess, gives us a new meaning to the phrase “playing like a life depended on it.”
The study, published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, correlates video gaming skills and a surgeon’s capabilities to perform laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopy is surgery where the surgeon makes a small incision in the patient’s body and performs the surgery by manipulating instruments guided by actual video images of the victim’s insides watched through a TV screen.
According to the study, the capacity of a surgeon to perform better at laparoscopy is more related to their videogaming skills than the length of their training or how many laparoscopic surgeries they’ve performed in the past. This, the study said, further proves past findings that playing videogames gives a person finer motor skills, better hand-eye coordination skills, visual attention, depth perception and computer competency.
But take note, kids – this finding can’t be used as an excuse to play computer games all day. Surgeons may benefit from casual gaming, but staying in front of the TV and the gaming console for a considerably long period of time will not get you to medical school. Hitting the books and doing your homework is still the best way to go.
Via News.com
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