Game Skill: Can You Select Your Surgeon by His Video Game Skills?

Frank Zappa once said: A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open. Recently we read the book: I Live in the Future and Here Is How It Works by Nick Bilton. He explores why your world, work, and brain are being creatively disrupted. He includes a great example of the use of video game skills.

Here is an example of the research Bilton uses to illustrate his thesis.

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Related: Continuous Learning Holds the Keys to Your Future Success

The next time you have surgery; ask your surgeon if he or she played video games in the past. Here’s why:

A few years ago, researchers quizzed more than thirty surgeons and surgical residents on their video-game habits, identifying those who played video games frequently, those who played less frequently, and those who hardly played at all.

Then they put all the surgeons through a laparoscopic surgery simulator, in which thin instruments akin to extremely long chopsticks are inserted into one or more small incisions through the skin along with a small camera that is inserted into an additional small opening.

Minimally invasive surgery like this frequently is used for gallbladder removal, gynecologic procedures, and other procedures that once involved major cutting and stitching and could require hours on an operating table.

Game skill

The researchers found that surgeons or residents who used to be avid video game players had significantly better laparoscopic skills than did those who’d never played. On average, the serious game players were 33 percent faster and made 37 percent fewer errors than their colleagues who didn’t have prior video-game experience.

The more video games the surgeons had played in the past, the better their numbers. This wasn’t tested on a group of kids who played twelve hours of video games a day and hadn’t showered in weeks. These residents and practicing surgeons simply played three or more hours of action video games a week. Some of the more advanced video game-playing students managed to make 47 percent fewer errors than others and were able to work as much as 39 percent faster.

The results were surprising given the criticism video games have received for rotting young minds, turning upstanding youngsters into juvenile delinquents, and just wasting time. Instead, surgeons and researchers have begun to test whether the games should be a key part of a future surgeon’s education since speed and accuracy are crucial to conquering the learning curve associated with using laparoscopic techniques to perform delicate procedures. Game skill, the researchers theorized, could translate into surgical skill and help cut “medical errors,” which have become the eighth leading cause of death in this country.

Have you read Nick Bilton’s book? If not, you should consider doing so, as there are many more interesting elements that certainly get you thinking!

What are your thoughts on this example? Do you want to select your surgeon based on video game skills? How about his skills in hand-to-eye coordination?