Saiu uma matéria interessante na revista IstoÉ dessa semana falando sobre a utilidade de certos games no treinamento do movimento preciso e delicado que os cirurgiões devem ter.

“Jogos eletrônicos que exigem movimentos delicados e precisos elevam a perícia médica”.

Segundo a matéria, oito cirurgiões recém-formados e em fase de treinamento tiveram de “manobrar” o Wiimote (controle sem fio da Nintendo) por uma hora. “No final dos testes com os voluntários, o grupo que usou os games do Wii mostrou um desempenho 50% melhor no controle de pinças e bisturis durante cirurgias virtuais do que aqueles que não fizeram o aquecimento”.

Segundo os cientistas que estudam os benefícios do video-game no auxílio da medicina, o game “Marble Mania” é o mais eficiente para estimular as habilidades dos cirurgiões.

Researchers at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix found in an experiment that resident physicians performed better at simulated surgery following videogame play on a Nintendo Wii. The study called to mind the intriguing work by Rosser et al on videogames’ positive benefits for laproscopic surgeons.

The motion-sensitive Wiimote is credited with the benefits this time, according to an article in New Scientist by Michael Reilly. Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith at BGSMC are developing surgery-specific software to run on the Wii that promises to offer resident physicians much cheaper training platforms than what has traditionally been available.

The study had participants using ProMIS software from Haptic.com, as well as Wii games such as Marble Mania. Games involving fine motor skills seemed more beneficial than games only requiring gross motor skills (an intuitive conclusion). Thus, Wii Tennis was not as beneficial for surgeons as Marble Mania.

Results have not yet been peer reviewed, but word of the findings has appeared in New Scientist and the Cleveland Leader. Kahol and Smith plan to present their findings at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference that runs Jan. 29 – Feb. 1 in Long Beach, California.

References:
Cleveland Leader. (2008, January 17). Video games help surgeons fine-tune their skills. [Online.] Retrieved January 17, 2008 from: http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/4377

Reilly, M. (2008, January 19). A Wii warm-up hones surgical skills. New Scientist. [Online.] Available: http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/
mg19726396.100-a-wii-warmup-hones-surgical-skills.html