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Should Meredith Grey play video games?

Should Meredith Grey play video games?

Here's a question: Why don't the surgeons-in-training on Grey's Anatomy ever play video games?

If they really wanted to be good surgeons, they would spend more time glued to their computer in the basement like a 14-year-old boys without social skills. They would quit all this stupid romance and ships blowing up and drowning. (Yes. Yes. I admit it. I'm a fan. While we're on the subject, I have to ask: How many of you Grey's Anatomy viewers wouldn't really mind if drippy Meredith Grey fails to snap out of her death spiral?)

Ahem, sorry. Back to business.

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Here's my rationale for the video game thing: A small study OK, that means, you may not look at this as the very last word on the subject -- showed that surgeons who played a lot of video games were faster, made fewer errors, and scored better on a device that simulated laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopy involves those surgeries where the surgeon makes a little incision through which they, say, pull out your gall bladder, or repair your knee, or put platinum in your brain.

The Washington Post today has a brief story on this research published this month in the Archives of General Surgery. The story says that surgeons who played at least three hours of video games per week in the past were 27 percent faster, made 37 percent fewer errors, and scored 42 percent higher on a surgical simulator than non players.

This is maybe not so unexpected, given how laparoscopy generally involves the surgeon looking at a screen while operating sensitive controls. But what was surprising about the study is that those who were still game players where do they find the time? -- weren't better than the folks who had moved on with their lives. In fact, they were a little worse. They were 24 percent faster, made 32 percent fewer errors, and scored 26 percent better than nonplayers. (Remember, this is a small study. A bigger study might overturn this just by adding numbers to the analysis.)

Anyway, this may be good news if your 14 year old hasn't left the basement since he was 10, but knows the tricks of every game on the market. You may have future surgeon on your hands. My advice: Don't let him get involved with that drippy Meredith Grey.

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First Published February 21, 2007, 2:51 p.m.

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