<![CDATA[From Slackers To Surgeons]]>A new study suggests that playing video games might be helpful to the next generation of surgeons, who frequently use minimally invasive tools:

A group of physicians studying at UTMB—a world leader in robotic surgery—was put up against US high school and college students in a series of robotic surgery simulation tests. The study measured participants on 20 different skills, including how steady their grasping abilities were when performing surgical tasks such as passing a needle or lifting surgical instruments. There were 32 different teaching steps required to operate the robotic surgery simulator—a training tool with dual hand-operated controllers. Real-time surgical movements are displayed on its video monitor.

The surgical skills of the high school students (who played video games an average of two hours a day) and the college students (some of whom spent four hours a day gaming) were found to be equal to the UTMB physicians—and in some cases, even exceeded the skills of the residents. The UTMB physicians were able to save face when the same test groups were asked to perform non-robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery, the physicians unsurprisingly coming out on top.

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