Wii used to hone surgeons' fine motor skills

Proving that children and the elderly are not the only groups seeing benefits from Nintendo's Wii, a study on a small group of surgeons who had practiced gaming with a modified controller showed them to achieve significantly more improvement on a standard simulator procedure than did a corresponding group of control subjects. Study author Kanav Kahol worked with Dr. Marshall Smith of the Banner Health hospital chain to build a special Wiimote attachment (read: broken golf club add on + laparoscopic probe) that eight surgical residents used to play Marble Mania and the full suite of Wii Play games. The gamers were then pitted against eight of their less-fortunate colleagues in a computer-simulated laparoscopic procedure, and managed to attain 48% higher scores, on average, than the non-gamers. Unfortunately, games involving broader motions such as tennis or boxing are said to be less suitable for this sort of training, make a total liar out of your doctor the next time you catch him "honing up on the latest techniques" by playing Wii Golf.

[Image courtesy of The Wall Street Journal]

[Itchy Pajamas @ Jan 18th 2008 10:37AM]

They need a molded latex controller for simulating prostate exams.

[DH @ Jan 18th 2008 10:44AM]

Funny!

[AJ in the East Bay @ Jan 18th 2008 10:44AM]

It's a day old, but oh, well...

[blade417 @ Jan 18th 2008 11:03AM]

This is kinda scary in a way...

I'll just leave it at that.

[Andune @ Jan 18th 2008 11:06AM]

So the next time you wake up after surgery with a pentagram carved into your chest... well...

[Seoultrain @ Jan 18th 2008 12:19PM]

awesome. I was wondering how long it was gonna take.

[Mihir @ Jan 18th 2008 11:50AM]

phhtt...big deal. i did that WAY before i became a surgeon. it's called "Operation". except i kept making the buzzer go off.

watch out liver,
watch out lungs,
ruptured appendix,
here i come!!

[Mihir @ Jan 18th 2008 11:56AM]

edit: yes, i know the lungs and liver don't get in the way of an appendix removal. it just made everything rhyme better.

[Paul @ Jan 18th 2008 12:10PM]

i wonder which difficulty level are they using for the game, Trauma Center: Second Opinion?

[SoreThumb @ Jan 18th 2008 12:31PM]

Quit playing games with my heart, Doc.

[Ian @ Jan 18th 2008 3:37PM]

no wonder no one can find a wii. people are using them for other things than just playing games on them! damn them all!