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Study: Gaming docs are better

Patients who go under the knife of a game-playing doctor are in better hands says research.

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There are a few things people like to hear when they choose a surgeon to operate on them--"I don't drink," "I live a very happy, relaxed life," and "I finished Halo on legendary." The last one might come as a bit of a shock, but if a study by Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and the National Institute on Media and the Family is accurate, it's an important piece of information. According to TechWeb.com, the study involved more than 300 surgeons who performed laparoscopic procedures, minimally invasive operations where doctors snip away using a television monitor and a camera mounted on a tool that is inserted into the patient's body.

Doctors who played games before taking a performance test completed it an average of 11 seconds faster than those who didn't (mistakes were weighted into the final time). "If we can use something cheap and over the counter like videogames to help surgeons, then we should be motivated to discover what we should use and how we should use it," said Dr. James Rosser, whose game of choice is Halo 2.

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