Jennifer Matthews: Nothing can replace the experience of operating on real patients. But residents at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland say this virtual reality simulator comes close.
Dr. Michael Englehart: The tactile feel is similar, and how the intestines are actually moving here on their own is very similar to how it would be in the body.
Resident Laszlo Kiraly: It prepares them for the operating room, even though it's not exactly the same experience.
Jennifer Matthews: The new simulator lets residents practice one of the most common procedures in medicine, laparoscopic surgery. This primitive looking training box, with a camera and a piece of foam inside, is what residents used to use to practice sewing internal organs.
Dr. Robert O' Rourke: I think that it will improve not only the quality but the pace of learning in resident training.
Jennifer Matthews: Residents still start with the training box but then move to the more realistic simulator. Unlike old virtual reality simulators, this one allows residents to feel tissue. In this case, the surgeon pulled too hard and ruptured a blood vessel.
After the kinks are worked out, Dr. O' Rourke is planning a study to find out if students who train on the new simulator are really better prepared to operate on people. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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