Video Games: Practical Application in Medicine :: GamerDad :: Gaming with Children: "I am 33 years old and currently practice as an OB/Gyn in rural Texas. As a resident in training, I found that when learning how to perform laparoscopic surgery that it seemed to come relatively easy for me.
When discussing this with my fellow residents and faculty it was pointed out that to perform well with the laparscope, one needs good hand-eye coordination. When performing other forms of surgery, you are actually looking directly at the surgical field and watching exactly where your hands are going. The laparoscope, on the other hand, involves placing your surgical instruments into a closed field and operating by watching the instruments on a television screen. You are not able to look down at your hands because you need to keep your eyes on the screen. As you can see this definitely requires some amount of hand-eye coordination.
In my opinion, the reason that this came easily for me was all those hours spent playing games in front of the television or the computer. When playing many of these games, you are watching a screen and simply pressing buttons on the controller or the keyboard to control the action that you see on the screen. A lot of the time, you have to make split second decisions and looking down at your hands could mean failure in the desired outcome of the game. After playing these games for years, it becomes second nature for you to simply react to the actions on screen without needing to make sure your hands are performing the correct movements. In my professional opinion, growing up in the age of video games has helped me to learn how to perform laparoscopic surgery more easily and quickly than those that did not grow up in this day and age or simply never experienced the joy of video gaming. "
When discussing this with my fellow residents and faculty it was pointed out that to perform well with the laparscope, one needs good hand-eye coordination. When performing other forms of surgery, you are actually looking directly at the surgical field and watching exactly where your hands are going. The laparoscope, on the other hand, involves placing your surgical instruments into a closed field and operating by watching the instruments on a television screen. You are not able to look down at your hands because you need to keep your eyes on the screen. As you can see this definitely requires some amount of hand-eye coordination.
In my opinion, the reason that this came easily for me was all those hours spent playing games in front of the television or the computer. When playing many of these games, you are watching a screen and simply pressing buttons on the controller or the keyboard to control the action that you see on the screen. A lot of the time, you have to make split second decisions and looking down at your hands could mean failure in the desired outcome of the game. After playing these games for years, it becomes second nature for you to simply react to the actions on screen without needing to make sure your hands are performing the correct movements. In my professional opinion, growing up in the age of video games has helped me to learn how to perform laparoscopic surgery more easily and quickly than those that did not grow up in this day and age or simply never experienced the joy of video gaming. "
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