Play Wii, Become a Better Surgeon

drew30319 writes "NPR reports that a team of researchers at the University of Rome required a group of surgical residents to play video games on a Nintendo Wii for an hour a day, five days a week, for four weeks resulting in 'statistically better' performance than a control group for laparoscopic skills. The study includes some interesting stats (e.g. while the control group showed a 10% improvement in accuracy, the Wii-playing group's accuracy improved by 83%). The study's authors add that '[t]he Nintendo Wii may be adopted in lower-budget Institutions or at home by younger surgeons to optimize their training on simulators before performing real procedures.'"

Comments

Re:So

[loufoque]

They were probably playing Trauma Center...

Scoring Champ

[puddingebola]

"I just wanted you to know before we put you under and I begin the surgery that I was the all-time champ in Super Mario World among my fellow students at Harvard Medical School. Rest assured."

Re:"Practicing hand/eye coord. makes you good at..

[bitt3n]

Would universities be better requiring medical students to play tennis each day or take up cross stitch than playing Wii?

As a conscientious surgeon dedicated to excellency in my chosen vocation, I'm willing to do absolutely anything to improve the lives of my patients, except knit or take exercise.