Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith of the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona believe that Trauma Center on the Wii actually increases the performances of their surgical residents. They think it's so good that they're actually working to develop proper training software on the Wii!

We'd all love to be able to class gaming as a training tool and something we could do during work, but I doubt most bosses would see a few games of PES as essential for the job. It seems that surgeons do benefit from playing video games though - at least when that console is the Wii.

According to NewScientist, Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith of the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, believe that playing on the Wii increases the performance of surgical residents. They are so impressed with the Wii as a training tool that they are even developing original training software to run on the Wii.

"You don't gain a lot from swinging an imaginary tennis racket," said Kanav Kohol when speaking to New Scientist magazine. "The whole point about surgery is to execute small, finely controlled movements with your hands, and that is exactly what you get with the Wii."

So less Wii Sports and more Trauma Center and Kororinpa. So next time you're playing on your Wii instead of doing your chores, you've also got the "I'm training to be a better surgeon" excuse to fall back on.

Reason via videogamer.com »