Doctors Use Video Games to Hone Skills

The director of the Advanced Medical Technologies Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center Dr. James Rosser, Jr., uses video games to train surgeons.

"Surgeons who play video games three hours a week have 37 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks 27 percent faster, he says, basing his observation on results of tests using the video game Super Monkey Ball[1].

Another group--the U.S. Army--is using and further developing a simulation game for medics that "lets them bandage wounds, apply tourniquets, administer intravenous fluids, inject medications and make all of the other assessments they would be required to do in an actual battlefield. " They have a ways to go. TATRC's J. Harvey Magee said "it doesn't respond like a really cool video game yet."

Click on the title for a link to this Reuters article. /jack

[1] Great choice, Doctor! SMB/SMB2 is one of my five favorite video games of all time.
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