Surgeons Train On Wii

The Wiimote has found a home outside of gaming

After recent headlines about the Wii helping patients with Parkinson’s Disease, and gaming components being used in stillborn baby research, comes another story about a gaming console being used for third-party applications.

News out of the US tells of eight trainee surgeons playing Wii games for 60 minutes before undertaking virtual laparoscopic surgery with a tool that tracks the surgeon’s movements. Apparently these trainees scored 48 percent higher than those who didn’t play the games when performing the virtual surgery.

Now the researchers are looking at releasing a training system whereby trainee surgeons can practice surgical procedures using Wii technology.

Who knows where this technology can lead, but it seems to be a growing market.