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When you think of video gamers or computer gamers, what typically comes to mind? Out of the many images, word associations, and stereotypes that may have just gone through your head, I am confident that the words, “future robotic surgeon” were not included.
A study, conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), suggests that video games may be more beneficial than people realize. UTMB, a world leader in minimally invasive and robotic surgery, wanted to find the best way to train future robotic surgeons. According to the principal investigator, Dr. Kilic, "The inspiration for this study first developed when I saw my son, an avid video game player, take the reins of a robotic surgery simulator at a medical convention […] [w]ith no formal training, he was immediately at ease with the technology and the type of movements required to operate the robot."
The intriguing study was presented earlier this month at the American Gynecologic Laparoscopists' 41st Annual Global Congress on Minimally Invasive Gynecology in Las Vegas. Participants in the study were high school students that averaged two hours of gaming per day, college students that averaged four hours per day, and medical residents. The study assessed participants’ competency on more than 20 different skill parameters (i.e. how much pressure participants’ put on their instruments, hand-eye coordination, how steady grasping skills are when performing surgical tasks) and 32 different teaching steps on the robotic surgery simulator. The robotic surgery simulator is a training tool that uses a video monitor that displays real-time surgical movements and looks oddly like a video game booth… it even has the dual-hand-operated controllers! And, like the Question Mark Block in Mario, the results of this study are quite surprising… as a whole, the high school participants 1up’ed the college students and the UTMB residents (high school participants performed the best, followed by the college students, and lastly the UTMB residents).
In addition, each group was tested in a simulation of a non-robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery. The results of this task showed that resident physicians held the record of “high score” in comparison to the high school students, when presented with a surgical technique that does not rely on the visual-spatial coordination present in robotic surgery. The study’s findings suggest that two hours a day is the optimal time needed for medical residents to increase robotic surgery skills. Future research may want to examine the social development of regular gamers, in order to see if playing two hours of video games per day is a new benefit for potential surgeons.
If future studies report similar results, this could mean we may see an increase in medical devices that include functions similar to those we may find in video-games, controllers, and gaming systems. We just have to remember real-life is not like a video game and life-saving devices are to be taken with all seriousness. Unlike Mario we do not get a reset button.
*Note: UTMB is one of few academic centers that are trying to standardize programs that train medical students and practicing physicians in the use of robotic surgical tools and techniques.
For more information:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/Wr1MGJBt4X0
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-young-gamers-insight-physicians-robotic.html
http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/robotics/newsid=27479.php#ixzz2CiqiMCav
http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/robotics/newsid=27479.php#ixzz2CinS7eCf
http://www.lasvegascme.com/conferences/4489
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220012341.htm
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-young-gamers-insight-physicians-robotic.html
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