The next time you drop by the doctor’s for your case of tennis elbow that might require surgery to fix it, don’t be surprised to hear that your surgeon plays tennis as well – except that he does so on the Nintendo Wii, as it is possible that surgeons who actually play on the Nintendo Wii could end up with better performance in the operating room, at least according to a new study that hopes to find out ways to improve the training regimen for surgeons who perform laparoscopic procedures.
It seems that playing Nintendo Wii has had a positive effect on hand-eye coordination and spatial attention, where post-graduate residents were asked to play Wii games throughout their month long training in laparoscopy techniques. A control group did not have the Wii to “train” on, but those who spent time on the Wii was said to have shown “a significant improvement over the other group.”
Well, what do you think of such research? Does this mean as a doctor, you finally have a legitimate excuse to tell your wife that you have to get that Wii console after all these years, for work purposes so that you can “level up” in your career?