Study: Doctors Work Better After Playing Games

A report by Reuters details a new study by Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City that found surgeons who played video games such as Super Monkey Ball prior to performing surgical drills were quicker and more accurate than those who did not, effectively training their co-ordination through the use of games. The research measured 303 surgeons on their performance of the "cobra rope" medical drill, “a standard laparoscopic training exercise used to teach how to sew up an internal wound.” Dr. James "Butch" Rosser, director of the Advanced Medical Technology Institute at Beth Israel and lead investigator on the study, said that the procedure is akin to “trying to tie your shoe laces with three-foot-long chopsticks while watching on a TV screen,” according to the report. The study found that those surgeons who played video games immediately prior to taking part in the drill on average completed it 11 seconds faster than those who performed the drill without playing video games, with fewer errors as well. According to the Reuters report, Rosser hopes that through studies such as this, the medical profession will be able to lessen and eventually eliminate errors made during surgery “by giving surgeons training tools akin to flight simulators used by pilots.”