Wii Games Boost Performance of Trainee Surgeons, Study Finds

Playing Nintendo Co.’s Wii console improved the performance of surgeons learning operations involving tiny cameras and instruments in a study that suggests the device could have a role to play in educating doctors.

In a trial among 42 post-graduate surgeons in Italy, those who were asked to play Wii games such as Tennis and a 3D battle game an hour a day, five days a week for four weeks did better at 13 out of 16 measures on a surgical simulator than those who didn’t play the games, researchers from Sapienza University of Rome wrote in the journal PLoS One today.