When doctors are preparing for their upcoming surgery, you probably think they’re studying all kinds of charts and diagrams as they carefully cut away at their slices of breakfast ham. Getting both their hands and minds ready for the upcoming task is probably as important as the surgery itself, although a group of surgeons in Florida Hospital Celebration Health have been known to do some gaming prior to their upcoming surgery.
The game of choice for Florida Hospital Celebration Health surgeons to warm themselves up with just so happens to be Super Monkey Ball 2, according to the Orlando Sentinel. A research conducted at the hospital took into account over 300 physicians for over three years, finding those who played Super Monkey Ball 2 or similar games for as little as six minutes prior to surgery were “more efficient” when performing simulated laparoscopic surgery. Their warm-up sessions reportedly helped them suppress errors, according to the general surgeon in charge of the research, Dr. James Rosser.
Dr. Rosser’s research has resulted in a new gaming area being built in the hospital’s physician lounge that encourages its doctors to warm-up prior to their surgery by playing video games. Considering Dr. Rosser’s research found those surgeons who played video games for at least 3 hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, we certainly would encourage more surgeons to play Super Monkey Ball 2 as much as possible, especially if we have a colonoscopy scheduled next week at 7 a.m.