Video Gameplaying Surgeons Perform Better On Skills Test
A new study found that surgeons and surgical residents with a history of playing video games for three hours or more per week performed significantly better on a standard surgical skills test than their nonplaying colleagues.
SUBSCRIBE TO Science Quickly
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Given a choice of surgeons, you might actually want the one sitting in the hospital lounge playing video games. Because such goofing off might be good training. A study just reported in the February issue of Archives of Surgery found that cutters who played video games did better on a standardized surgery test.
The study looked at 33 surgeons and surgical residents doing a course called the Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program. That program scores surgeons based on the time it takes them to do some simulated surgery techniques and the number of errors they make. Participants were rated and then those ratings were compared with the surgeons’ reports about how much time they spent playing video games.
Turned out that surgeons with a history of three or more hours of video game playing per week made 37 percent fewer errors and were 27 percent faster than non players. So you might indeed want a video game player to close that tracheoesophageal fistula. But if you want to be a surgeon, remember, don’t spend so much time on the X-Box that you flunk your MCATS.
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
