For those of you who enjoy the odd 'games are good for you' story, here's an interesting twist on the theme. According to Reuters, research carried out by the Advanced Medical Technology Institute at Beth Israel indicates that surgeons perform better and with fewer errors if they play videogames for twenty minutes before operating on patients. From the story:
"The research involved 303 surgeons participating in a medical training course that included video games and was focused on laparoscopic surgical procedures - which use a tiny video camera and long, slender instruments inserted through small incisions."
Interestingly, the only game mentioned in the report is Sega's Super Monkey Ball in which you must carefully guide the eponymous simians through tight mazes. Perhaps this has some hand-eye coordination similarities with directing cameras into people's bodies - although during the course of laparoscopic surgery, medical staff are highly unlikely to discover small bunches of bonus bananas.
Ultimately, lead investigator, Dr. James "Butch" Rosser, wants to see training tools 'akin to flight simulators' provided to surgeons. "We can't practice on patients," he points out mercifully. Perhaps copies of Trauma Centre should be distributed to all junior doctors?
I, for one, agree with Dr Butch and will refuse to go under the knife from now on until I see my surgeon's Monkey Ball score. After all, none of us want to face that most deadly end-of-level boss, medical incompetence.
