Before He or She Cuts, Ask Your Surgeon: "Are you a Super Monkey Ball player?"

Ronald Bailey | February 26, 2007

Top ten med school, check. Board certification, check. Video game champ, check. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Doctors who reported having played video games at least three hours a week sometime in their past worked 27% faster and made 37% fewer errors on the surgical tasks compared with those who had never picked up a game controller, according to the study in the Archives of Surgery...

The research looked at 33 surgeons attending a course on laparoscopic surgery and found that their game-playing skill was a better predictor of success on the surgical tests than years of medical practice or number of surgeries performed.

Of course, the moral panic over video games continues and Congressoid Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) wants to do it for the kids.