James Delahunty
19 Feb 2007 15:06
According to a study published in the February edition of Archives of Surgery, Surgeons who regularly play video games are generally more skilled at performing laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopy involves controlling surgical instruments through a small incision or body opening, where the Surgeon is guided by a TV screen. The study found that regular gamers made fewer errors, performed faster and performed better in a surgical skills test.
33 doctors from Beth Israel Medical Center in New York participated in the study. The 9 doctors that had at some time played video games at least 3 hours per week made 37% less errors than 15 doctors who had never played video games. They also performed 27% faster and scored 42% better in a surgical skills test.
"It was surprising that past commercial video game play was such a strong predictor of advanced surgical skills," said Iowa State University psychology professor Douglas Gentile. Dr. James Rosser of Beth Israel, said, "Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons," but the authors don't recommend that this research should be used to allow younger children and students to play games too often.
"Parents should not see this study as beneficial if their child is playing video games for over an hour a day," Gentile said. "Spending that much time playing video games is not going to help their child's chances of getting into medical school." Video games have been linked to aggressiveness, poor grades and are often used as a substitute for proper exercise.
Source:
Reuters