Study: Surgeons warm up with Wii

Gaming research is a growing field, and while the conclusions reached run the gamut from promisingly positive to damningly negative, it seems there are always more studies from both ends of the spectrum just around the corner. This week's entry in the former category comes from New Scientist, which is reporting on a new study that suggests playing Wii games helped doctors score higher on certain aspects of a surgical training simulation.

Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith of the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, took eight doctors in training and had them play games for an hour before performing a virtual surgery. Those who played on the system performed tested 48 percent higher on toll control and performance in the simulation. Those who played games requiring precise movements like Kororinpa: Marble Mania--in which a player tilts the Wii Remote to move a ball around in-game levels--saw more improvement than those that allowed players to succeed with broad gestures like swinging a tennis racket. "The whole point about surgery is to execute small, finely controlled movements with your hands, and that is exactly what you get playing Wii," Kahol told the magazine. (The article did not mention Atlus' Trauma Center: Second Opinion, which more directly mimics surgery.)

The researchers had their subjects wear gloves equipped with motion sensors during the playtime and surgery simulation, and found the movements required of the two acts matched up well. Their findings will be presented later this month at a California conference dubbed "Medicine Meets Virtual Reality."