The wii is so not got for fine motor skills. It can't even register a golf swing properly.

Maybe wii motion plus will be worthwhile, but I'll still have some reservations on it's accuracy. It's just not that good.

Setzer IIDX

Bah there goes my plans to create a very expensive virtual Operation game.

CURSE YOUR WII!!!!*

*Pun intended.

Thassodar

These same surgeons should recheck their malpractice insurance.

:/

PsycheE

I find this frightening.

breakblossom

Hell yes, then that means after playing Phoenix Wright Im going to the courthouse and become a lawyer. Hell I will play Amateur Surgeon and Trauma Center and become a Surgeon/Lawyer.

shrek187

@danieldrago: xbox is in the fire department.

FPS gaming on the PC improves surgeons by 200%, showed an earlier study. I'd avoid surgeons that are used to a lagging imprecise waggle on a low-definition screen. They're bound to develop butcher-trainees' fingers.

somarix

im not sure if this is terrifying or awesome

souljacker86

Tuition is about to go up! Now you'll have to buy all your books AND a Wii, as well as Kingdom Heart Surgery Trainer!

sircuddles

We are gonna have to take the good with the bad. Next week, Wii Zapper increases accuracy of potential killers...9 year old efficient gunslingers, news at 10.

Agnostic

I saw a report that arthroscopic surgeons who were avid gamers had fewer mistakes. In arthroscopic surgery, a camera is inserted into a hole in the patient along with tools for the surgery. The surgeon controls everything by remote control while looking at the camera's image on a monitor. Sounds a lot like a video game to me.

[www.msnbc.msn.com]

Eltigro

@D-Sovereignty: I think the point is that there are devices that surgeons use to practice motor skills for minimally invasive surgeries, where they have to basically use tools that extend within the body without actually have full incisions and such. However, these devices are very expensive, whereas this modified application of the Wii Remote gives similar results at a much lower cost.

So for there to be an improvement in fine motor skills after practicing/warming up with such a device might not be as shocking as it seems, especially since part of the article notes that there are other machines like this Wii remote application that doctors have/do use for the same goal.

Skitch

Breaking! This just in!
Practice improves doctor's skill
I couldn't have guessed

Dorphat the Insomniac

PS3 cures cancer, Wii helps teach them how.

zeldarooles

So that's how I could have made my Wii useful.

PlasmaMachine

It's gonna be great to wake up with a pentagram stitched into me.

Talleh

I'll make sure to buy my surgeon a Wii about a month before my next life threatening surgery, just in case it helps...

spuzman00

So the ps3 cures cancer, the wii makes doc better, and the xbo.......oh :'( this makes me cry..but hold on a sec maybe microsoft isnt after the Health departments :| DUN DUN DUUUNNNN!!!!!

danieldrago

@D-Sovereignty: i think they were trainee surgeons, at least based on the way i read the article

meltyman

Interesting report, would have loved to see these surgeons records, are they filled with errors or what?

BassForever

That report is laughable. With the new Wii 'are accurate now' attachment what silly percentage will they claim.

proust

I imagine it will only be a short time before Wario Ware is a pre-req for medical school.

Student: As you can see, I'm the top student in my class.
Doctor: That's all well and good son, but whats your high score on Wii sports?
Student: I actually don't play video games...
Doctor: Oooh, thats a kicker, I'm afraid we cant let you in, we'll be giving your spot to Joe here though, He went 5 games undefeated in Mario Party!
Joe: And I was stoned when I did it too!
*Doctor and Joe high five*

Kandoh

That's pretty neat.

InsidiousTuna

Improved by 50%? how horrible were these surgeons before this test?... I mean to improve your surgical skills by 'half' of how good you were before is a major improvement, where the hell did these guys go to med school at?

I feel sorry for people who need surgery in Phoenix...

But i'm glad they improved...thank god.

D-Sovereignty

Lol, I can't even imagine this. All of my wii-owning friends are quite shaky in their hands..

Wahrheit

With the Wii Motion Plus, surgeons will be 100 Percent better! Nintendo wasn't going for casual gamers after all, they were going for the medical industry.

everybest

News: Not Even Experienced Surgeons Able To Beat Last Level Of Trauma Center.

Aye Mak Sicur

Freakin' awesome.

Although this might inspire Nintendo to develop Wii Medicine.

DRaGZ

If my doctor can beat me at Wii sports, he can remove my spleen.

SeedyROM

@z0phi3l: I bet they feel like it's great press.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

Hearing a doctor say "I practiced your procedure on Trauma Center" wouldn't exactly fill me with confidence.

WittyUserName

Time to buy one these and go into the back alley surgeon business.

mfwahwah

Interesting use of a Wiimote, wonder how Nintendo feels about the whole thing

z0phi3l

Just wait 'till they get Wii Motion Plus.

AsianAfro77

Interesting. I will ask my doctor, before going in, if they're an avid gamer.

NeoNess

I hope they dont start to waggle their tools inside their patients.

Nicevillin

Is the tutorial hosted by Dr. Mario?

P3nnst8r has returned on the Graces of Brian Ashcraft

@D-Sovereignty: They were residents, people who went through med school but are getting their actual hospital experience (including surgery) training now.

JokesJokes

Awesome.

KM91

@DukeOfPwn: It was funnier when Talleh said it.

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

So, so they slice pentagrams into their patients now?

DukeOfPwn

@karateka: I don't think it's a matter of feedback or precision (not a doctor, so I can't say for certain if that's the case). I think it has more to do with getting experience with surgery. It's only thing to read about performing a task than it is to simulating it (and then performing it). The training is meant to get doctors accustomed to it. I imagine they focus more on scenarios and basic techniques.

They make a flight simulator comparison. Using a joystick for controlling a plane isn't the same as the actual plane controls, but you can still get the idea of what to do and when.

Silent Predator

@Setzer IIDX: Golf swing != Fine Motor Skills.

The accelerometers in the Wii Remote are able to detect slight tilts and the such, which seems to be what the software environments were based on.

The types of motions that the Wii Remote alone can't detect will mostly be addressed with the WiiMotionPlus addon, since that adds a Gyroscope to the equation, IIRC.

Skitch

@Setzer IIDX: By the latest video demonstration we saw here, MotionPlus is kinda so-so (but not terrible), and has 350ms latency. That's enough latency to scar your perception of reality and precision for years. Plus when you stop a motion, the data produces a hefty ~30% RMS error-spike.

The "expensive simulator" they mention is a very complex machine with extreme sensitivity, realistic FEEDBACK, and a supercomputer with several most-expensive videocards - all processing physics, biometry simulations, 3D fluid simulations and visualization (the games we play, in comparison, are drawing and computing just 2D shells), ....
it just lacks odor to simulate reality 1:1.
The waggle stuff will only hurt the skills of surgeons.

somarix

I bet you won't see this on CNN.

HueyFreeman

Oh yeah...I really trust surgeons graduating from University of Wiinix. The reason those equipment costs a lot becuase they are more precise and provide feedback, that using a wiimote would not. When you cut someone open, you actually feel resistance when you touch the virtual skin. How are you going to do that witha wiimote? Lets just say that the surgeons that uses the wiimote are 50% worse than the ones trained on real equipments. would you trust that surgeon to operate on you if they trained on a wiimote? Don't think so.

karateka

Soooo... games can save lives?! say that to jack thompson or those fuckers from Fox News! if they ever need to do an operation I hope the surgeon his an avid gamer so he can revenge our noble and pure name!

WammyJammy

@WittyUserName: I think it all depends on what rank he got. If he managed 'S' I think I'd be fine with it.

That said, this is nothing new. I think studies from years ago showed that playing games before surgery improved doctor's performance. It's all about improving hand-eye coordination.

Silent Predator

Rock Band makes us all rock stars and SingStar helps us keep tone you know.

NotoriousJnX

The Wii playing surgeons were reported to be fifty percent more accurate, and forty percent more casual. Thirty percent of the surgeons questioned responded that after buying a Wii to practice with they performed surgeries nearly nonstop for about two weeks-- including several all-night surgeries with all their other surgeon buddies-- and then stopped performing surgeries entirely. A further twenty percent answered that they didn't feel their surgical equipment were accurate enough, and requested a more responsive series of tools-- a surgery plus, as it were. A final, vehement fifteen percent disapproved entirely, and felt that surgery was being unfairly opened up to other, lesser groups like nurses, gynecologists, pediatricians, and the snotty ladies working the ER admissions desks.

wild homes isn't anything!

It sounds to me like they took really crappy interns (think the guy in Scrubs that works in the morgue as of season 8....or is that 7?), gave them a Wii and Trauma centre to go play at home and when they all came back they actually knew where to find the appendix.

Dirame

@Chef: There was some insurance fraud in Saints Row if I recall correctly.

Silent Predator

This reeks of bullshit

Rajolae

It's only fitting that they have surgery simulators to go along with murder simulators, and thanks to Phoenix Wright, we have courtroom simulators, so all that's left is an insurance fraud simulator.

Chef

@Onizuka-GTO:
lol.

Nicevillin

@Nicevillin: if they do, lets hope it's consensual and out of office hours.

Onizuka-GTO

I guess it could get better with motion plus...but if they train with wii sports then i am concerned.

Mike918

This remindes me of that Family Guy Episode (Believe it or Not, Joe's Walking on Air). It went like this:

Joe: DOCTOR! I WANT TO WALK AGAIN!
Doctor (forgot name...): Ok. We'll just need to have you pick out a pair of legs.

Later...In the operating room...

Doctor: Ok, while the anesthesia is putting you to sleep, I'll just pop in the How To video.
Joe. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Amazon_Chris

Wow,at least someone is getting something out of their Wiis...

Tietsu

The bashing in these comments make me giggle.

DariusEnigma

Funny thing is, my dentist is a gamer. He thinks it helps him.

Ignatius

"I'm sorry Mr Fredrick, we couldn't save your wife. If it helps, you'll be glad to know the doctors team scored an all time high score."

Lexi00

"said Dr. Mark Smith, a co-developer and a gynecological surgeon at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix."

Finally all of those "Wii" jokes have become a reality.

Benguin

I dunno about you, but I'd rather my surgeon trained on a high-tech simulator than on a Wii.

MorbidLilim

I don't like the idea that surgeons "need to get better"

SAJ1724

"Nurse! Nun chuck attachment! STAT!"

Sudden Device

sounds good to me. "the Wii saves lives" would have been a good title.

Awoken

Finally some good news. You can't deny the positives of playing games, only cover them up or not report them. I'm glad one TV station is taking the initiative.

Furysetzer

@MorbidLilim: "I dunno about you, but I'd rather my surgeon trained on a high-tech simulator than on a Wii."

Remember, that expensive high-tech simulator just might be older, less effective, and use worse graphics than whatever homebrew they're cooking up using a wiimote. They were using the wiimote in conjunction with motion capture gloves and other bits of simulation gear. This study in effect created a new type of high-tech simulator at a fraction of the cost, and still produced great results. So now hospitals everywhere can afford simulators for only a few hundred or thousand dollars instead of a few hundred-thousand dollars.

"We have surgical simulators in virtual reality, but this has taken it to a whole new level, which is exciting. "

"This gives us a much less costly way to train on fine motor skills that surgeons employ in surgery,"

And if you had taken time to read the article, you would have learned that the actual surgical tools for the surgery involved have controls very similar to the the wiimote. That means that people who have previous experience using similar types of control mechanisms will be ahead of the n00b curve when presented with the actual equipment.

Literacy. It can work for YOU!

ThatGuyOverThere

I bet they practice by playing Trauma Center and fighting GUILT.

Para

novint falcon anyone?

JaXs

Mario and Sonic at the Operating Theatre? Quadruple Bypass Mama? The posibilities are endless.

DwerG

@AsianAfro77: indeed!

argosy

On my next visit at the hospital, I sure hope my doctor did his Wii homework.

Soulrivers

I'm calling BS on this now. You're telling me the only cost effective way they could train people to practice small hand movements is with a video game? And it took them this long to figure out how to do that?

Nevermind you could practice the same exact thing by waving a scalpel around in the air.

Ad-hominem

and yet nothing on the increased skill in masturbation?

sivatco