http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/fun.games/02/19/surgery.games.reut/index.html
haha i knew video games would benefit people in the long run!
Study: Surgeons who play video games more skilled
POSTED: 4:03 p.m. EST, February 19, 2007
Story Highlights• Study links video game skills and surgeons' capabilities
• Surgeons who played video games made fewer errors
• They also performed faster, and scored better on a skills test
CHICAGO, Illinois
(Reuters) -- Playing video games appears to help surgeons with skills
that truly count: how well they operate using a precise technique, a
study said 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. "It was
surprising that past commercial video game play was such a strong
predictor of advanced surgical skills," said Iowa State University
psychology professor Douglas Gentile, one of the study's authors. It
supports previous research that video games can improve "fine motor
skills, eye-hand coordination, visual attention, depth perception and
computer competency," the study said. "Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons," senior author Dr. James Rosser of Beth Israel said. While
surgeons may benefit from playing video games, the study did not give
parents a pass if their children play the games for hours on end. A
2004 survey by Gentile found 94 percent of adolescents play video games
for an average of nine hours a week. Game-playing has been linked to
aggressiveness, poor school grades and can become a substitute for
exercise. "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." Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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