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Good Surgeons Play Video Games

by Steven Rodriguez - April 7, 2004, 12:13 am EDT
Total comments: 8 Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=51...

The guy who is playing Super Monkey Ball might be the same one that will remove your brain tumor. How ironic.

Accoring to an Iowa State University study, doctors who perform laparoscopic surgery that spend at least three hours a week with a controller in their hand made fewer mistakes and performed their job faster than those who did not.

We could explain this in more detail here, but it would probably be best if we just linked you to the story and left you with this quote from the article:

"Yes, here we go!" said [Dr. James] Rosser, sitting in front of a Super Monkey Ball game, which shoots a ball into a confined goal. "This is a nice, wholesome game. No blood and guts. But I need the same kind of skill to go into a body and sew two pieces of intestine together."

Talkback

fiveironalexApril 07, 2004

And yet some people question the value of video games...

Bill AurionApril 07, 2004

Well the fact that gaming improves hand-eye coordination has been known for a while now... ^_^

mouse_clickerApril 07, 2004

Quote
The guy who is playing Super Monkey Ball might be the same one that will remove your brain tumor. How ironic.


Eh, I believe it's coincidental rather than ironic- irony is when two things oppose eachother, but as Bill said, we've known videogames improve hand-eye coordination for a long time, so it's coincidental that someone would be both a surgeon and a Super Monkey Ball fan.

Ian SaneApril 07, 2004

I think it would be ironic if they guy who's mastering headshots in an FPS is removing your brain tumor. In one situation he's using his hand-eye coordination to destory a brain and in the other he's using it to save a brain.

mouse_clickerApril 07, 2004

They refer only to Super Monkey Ball, though, and the surgeon specifically cites its lack of blood and gore as a reason for his liking it. I suppose it could be ironic in your example, but that's not the impression I got.

nickmitchApril 07, 2004

YES!!! More props for video games! I know they've saved my life once or twice. Now maybe there'll be less hate twords video games. One more thing, this could end the seemlessly unending stream of video games depending on violence. I'm glad there are games like that.

DjunknownApril 07, 2004

Hey Lieberman, stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

An example of irony would be if Lieberman was getting surgery and the head surgeon was playing some GTA.... Highly doubtful since you probably want a game that relaxes you, not excite you. Oh well, just a lame attempt of humorface-icon-small-blush.gif

Seriously, this proves once again that with moderation is the key.

Uncle Rich AiAiApril 08, 2004

from the article:

Quote
...surgical trainees warm up their coordination, agility and accuracy with a video game before entering the operating room.

ahahahahahahaha...........I find that funny.

"Excuse Mr. Surgeon, but everyone is waiting for you"
"Yeah, yeah, give me a minute to finish this level....."

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