The video above features Dr. Kilic
discussing the study and the implications of robotic surgery on
future surgical training.
Using skills gleaned from video games,
high school and college students outmatch medical residents in
surgical simulations a new UTMB study finds
What can high school and college-age
video game enthusiasts teach young surgeons-in-training?
According to a new study from
researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
(UTMB) – a world leader in minimally invasive and robotic surgery –
the superior hand-eye coordination and hand skills gained from hours
of repetitive joystick maneuvers mimic the abilities needed to
perform today's most technologically-advanced robotic surgeries.
Both high school sophomores who played
video games on average two hours per day and college students who
played four hours of video games daily matched, and in some cases
exceeded, the skills of the residents on parameters that included how
much tension the subjects put on their instruments, how precise their
hand-eye coordination was and how steady their grasping skills were
when performing surgical tasks suck as suturing, passing a needle or
lifting surgical instruments with the robotic arms.
"The inspiration for this study
first developed when I saw my son, an avid video game player, take
the reins of a robotic surgery simulator at a medical convention,"
said Dr. Sami Kilic, lead author of the study and associate professor
and director of minimally invasive gynecology in the department of
obstetrics and gynecology at UTMB. "With no formal training, he
was immediately at ease with the technology and the type of movements
required to operate the robot."
Specifically, the UTMB study measured
participants' competency on more than 20 different skill parameters
and 32 different teaching steps on the robotic surgery simulator –
a training tool that resembles a video game booth complete with
dual-hand-operated controllers a video monitor that displays
real-time surgical movements. As a whole, the nine tenth graders
participating in the study performed the best, followed by nine
students from Texas A&M University and lastly the 11 UTMB
residents; the mean age of each group was 16, 21 and 31 respectively.
For further comparison, the groups were
tested in a simulation of a non-robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery.
In this scenario, when presented with a complicated surgical
technique that does not rely on the visual-spatial coordination
present in robotic surgery, the resident physicians scored far higher
than the high school gamers.
Kilic notes these observations point to
a need for surgical training to adapt to future generations of
doctors who will arrive at medical school with an affinity for
emerging surgical techniques. "Most physicians in practice today
never learned robotic surgery in medical school," said Kilic.
"However, as we see students with enhanced visual-spatial
experience and hand-eye coordination that are a result of the
technologically-savvy world they are immersed in, we should rethink
how best to teach this generation."
Since the best results were seen in
students who played video games up to two hours daily and not those
who played four hours daily, this could indicate the optimal time
needed for medical residents to gain these skills according to Kilic.
The high-tech simulators used in this
study are a staple of the UTMB training program for performing
minimally invasive robotic surgery. The institution is among a
handful of academic medical centers that are establishing
standardized programs aimed at training both medical students and
practicing physicians in how to use robotic surgical tools and
techniques most effectively.
Through its minimally invasive and
robot-assisted surgery area of excellence, UTMB trains 32 residents
and numerous faculty and other practicing physicians, including
international surgeons from England, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden
and Turkey, annually.
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