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Playing Video Games Makes For Better Surgeons
Steve Wallach writes "ABC News on line is reporting that surgeons that play video games at least three hours a week make 37% fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and complete the surgery 27% faster than their non-video game playing colleagues. '"I use the same hand-eye coordination to play video games as I use for surgery," said Dr. James "Butch" Rosser, 49, who demonstrated the results of his study Tuesday at Beth Israel Medical Center.'"
I am sure the sight of gushing blood probably doesn't effect too many of them either.
Enough Doom or Unreal will fix that problem for you.
I wouldn't trust a surgeon who's played a bunch of console games with vibrating controllers. That really doesn't help your hands stay stable.
In the real world, I could see twitch reflexes and reaction times being much better. But, if we're talking somebody holding something that shakes their hands on a regular basis making them more precise, then you've lost me.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
Wonder if this is related, but it might be that surgeons need practice at maintaining attention on something; like everyone else.
The more practice you get concentrating intensely on hand-eye coordination based activities, the better you get. Hey, I should know. I started out sucking rocks at Quake and ALL FPS, but kept on playing and and getting fragged and managed to figure out how to hold my own, just barely.
Just that since there aren't so many surgical procedures to practice on, playing games are a means of tuning the hand eye coordination. A friend of mine plays a lot of squash for the same reason (although he's pretty careful of his fingers and wrists)
I remember getting a game for my Tandy 1000 as a 10-year old kid called "Life & Death", a pleasant emergency room surgery simulator 'game' wherein colleagues would dutifully inform you "He's shuffled off this mortal coil" or "I'm sorry, he's gone" when you (being 10 years old) inevitably messed up the lidocaine dosage or made an incision in the wrong place.
I'm really curious as to what the results would be if actual surgeons tried this game. I suspect it would be more likely to increase malpractice lawsuits and therapy sessions than skill.
screenshots are often taken and placed in the medical record... it's not only good documentation, it makes it harder for a disgruntled patient to come back later and sue, saying the appendix wasn't infected and the surgery wasn't necessary, etc; it's not only in the path report, it's right there in the chart in brilliant color.
Some surgeons, particularly plastic surgeons, are practically professional photographers... I've often had them come into the ER to sew faces of drunk drivers and bar-fight participants back together. The first thing they do is take a bunch of pictures. The reason why is pretty simple: A before/after picture comparison can be a real case-breaker for a plaintiff's attorney. Even with the most-expert plastic surgeon working on you, almost every wound scars to one degree or another... the before/after pics really put it into perspective for a jury.
A picture is truly worth a thousand words.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
No, but it probably does mean that any taping of a new procedure will most likely be punched up with a really cool soundtrack and some interesting visual effects highlighting the really tricky parts.
I'm just waiting to see how long it takes before clan tags start making it onto nameplates for their offices....
-={4M2}=- DethTherahpy, MD
|OsteoClan|SawBonez
+WheresThatSponge
I'm not running down plastic surgeons, I'm just telling you what they've told me. And for the record, there is nothing wrong with covering your butt, particularly in a litigation-prone field like plastics.
The reality is this: when a plastic surgeon takes care of an ER patient, it's often uncompensated, and the surgeon typically never sees that patient again after they are healed. Also, some of the antisocial types that end up needing that kind of surgical assistance can be quite litigious. If that patient comes back years down the line with some kind of legal action, the surgeon may not even remember them... so it's nice to have those pictures. No surgeon I've ever known puts them in his family album. Also, plastic surgeons are variable in their picture taking... the last case I testified in involved no pictures whatsoever.
As far as criminal courts, most plastic surgeons take pictures for their own records, not for criminal prosecution. In the case of domestic violence and sexual assault, the police take their own pictures for those... the surgeon's pictures can be challenged/thrown out in court if they're not dated, no chain of custody, no secure storage, etc.
As far as old records go, they are more of a help than a hindrance, even legally.
Finally, in the case of skin cancers, you rely on the pathology reports (or the intraoperative sections during a Mohs procedure) to tell you if the wound margins are clear... God help you if you rely on photographs for that.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Been carrying out an experiment on /. moderation - seeing if the reason I've not seen modpoints was my reading habits. I plan on doing a quick note in my journal. However, right now typing is a bit hard because I have a touch of (hopefully temporary) ulnar neropathy in my left hand - I think its from hyperextending my elbow in my sleep. My MD recommended getting a sling and sleeping in that, and I have a nerve conduction scheduled for a week from now.
The "Wall hack" I was thinking of was something along the lines of a THz imager tied to a HUD - nice to spot what's broke.
As for the annoying drunks - mix some DMSO and some capsisum and squirt'em with that! Hmm. Wonder if ipecac + DMSO would work....
But then there's that whole "Do no harm" thing....
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