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Surgeons Use Gaming to Improve Skills
The New York Times (registration required) has an analysis of several surgeons at Beth Israel Medical Center who utilize video games to improve their operating room hand-eye coordination. From the article: "The complex manual dexterity required to be a stellar video gamer and minimally invasive surgeon are strikingly similar, said Dr. Rosser, chief of minimally invasive surgery and director of the hospital's Advanced Medical Technology Institute."
So if your chart says "pwned!!!1!!1", that's a good thing?
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
And they say Halo 2 is bad for me. Well who's laughing now? I have a medical stamp of approval!1!eleven!
Behold, another webcomic!
...or at least many similar stories about laparoscopic sugery and how video games improve the needed skillz*ahem*skills. There's a lot of precision involved in both surgeries and games, and I've seen many people suck at games (not that I'm any better) because they can't do things precisely. (You know, like aiming.*) I'm not surprised in this article's case.
*although lots of online games lag so much one wonders who or what, if anything, to aim at for that lovely moment of pwnage.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
... Oh, come on, you all know the Operation commercial theme song!
...that they haven't been playing too much Doom 3.
DOCTOR (regarding the screen): Well, it is very dark.... And, OH MY GOD A ZOMBIE!!!! AAHHAAHH!!!111!!!1!! DIE MOTHERF*CKER!!!! oh, oops... (nervous laugh) don't worry, you can survive with only one kidney...
hereand
here
"oh no! he's going into cardiac arrest! We must save him!" up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, SELECT, START. *random chime* "Phew! good work everyone!"
Theory of flight?! I'll teach you the theory of fist!!
have been telling their parents this for years... I remember trying to pull that on them when I was still in high school
The Answer
I read it as
The Air Force has known about the tendency for video games to improve reflexes and the ability to make quick judgments for years, now. Of course, it only works when the video games are hard.
...but is it art?
With n00b surgeons standing around supporting one or two CS or doom or quake champs of the city, busy stitching arteries together, with red bulls in their bloodstreams.
Getting to a tumor can be called CTF.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
The fact that video games improve hand-eye coordination and reaction time isn't anything new, its just that there haven't been a lot of applications for it.
Well, besides the military at least.
Most jobs rely on careful, methodical actions and thinking, rather than quick reflexes. So twitch games don't really boost many crucial job skills.
Beyond the Polygons : Because 50,000 polygo
I've never been quite the same since my surgeon found the big-head code.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
It's spelled "Skillz"
The ______ Agenda
I wonder if the doctors get to use their favourite game controller for the surgeries...
I'm so used to the PS2 controller, that I suck at any game played with the Xbox controller(s).
I can't even play GTA3 and VC on the PC because I'm so used to playing it on the PS2.
And I tried those adapters to plug a Ps2 controller in a PC, but GTAVC for PC doesnt allow some controls (including some helicopter commands) to be remapped...
I play a stringed instrument, but I was a gamer first, and my ability to play in tune and to use vibrato (place my fingers in the exact right place to produce desired pitches and vibrate my fingers back and forth to create a warm sound respectively) is much better than average and is sometimes better than the abilities of those who are overall much better players than I. I don't think it is a coincidence that I am a gamer and I was quicker to develop skill at precision movements like these.
here's the original Slashdot article from which this dupe spawned.
...someone will program an emulator for Slashdot. Then the editors will be able play all their favorite old stories without duping them.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
if you get caught gaming when you are supposed to be working, don't expect your boss to believe you are in fact improving your work-related skills.
I know mine didn't believe it. So now I am improving my 1nva51v3 sur93ry sk1llz full-time. :(
I read an article somewhere reputable (no idea where, it was about 7 or 8 years ago now) about computer gamers and enhanced skills. The factors involved were
Coordination - better than average fine motor control skills (small-scale precision), but average large motor control (eg swinging the entire arm to a point on the wall)
Tracking - gamers can track on average around 8 items in their field of view simultaneously, more than the general average of 5-6
Concentration - staying focused on a task without distraction for (sometimes significantly) longer times than average.
The study had worked with brain scans to test alpha and beta brain activity levels - alpha waves are indicative of more automatic control, beta waves are more complex. A link had been found with the skills listed above being seen in computer gamers; the gamers were far faster than average at settling from beta to alpha waves when introduced to an activity.
The article finished off by mentioning the groups most likely to display alpha patterns - Transcendent aspirants (eg Buddhist zen masters), Sportspeople who get to The Zone (intense physical activity, all pain is completely suppressed - very useful), and high-activity computer gamers.
Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
I for one.. do not want to be the one who gets the surgeon who says "Game Over" when there's no more to be done...
lol.
(1st sig) If this were a snappy sig, you'd be reading it right now. (2nd sig) I'm a karma whore. >Insert FUD here
Before I start the operation, do you by chance have an extra life?
God spoke to me.
I knew doctors were smart, but to convince the higher-ups that playing video games on company time improves their skills, I am amazed.
Of course I'm joking, I have excellent hand-eye coordination from years of video games. It's the arm-eye, leg-eye, foot-eye and pretty much every other body part-eye coordination that leaves much to be desired.
You are talking about "olde school" (even older than old school) turn-based strategy games, not the real-time strategy games right? The RTSs are just as twitchy as FPSs, the only real difference is you have to multitask more in a RTS.