“Bob is having a cardiac arrest!” These are words that no one wants to hear, let alone when they’re coming from an expert surgeon. Medical dramas and freak cases reenacted on cable television have taught us to fear the lazy nonchalance of a drunk/angry/careless surgeon.
Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator 2013, one of the games to come from this year’s Global Game Jam event, is the epitome of that fear as the player in this video (shown below) clumsily spills surgical tools into patient Bob’s open chest cavity, haphazardly removes organs, and chops up bones. Is poor Bob even anesthetized? I don’t want to know.
We wondered … are real surgical training simulations anything like this?
This year, Seattle-based company Mimic Technologies announced a new way for surgeons to master medical procedures without actually practically on real people — kind of the case with Bob here (we hope). The MSim 2.0 robotic platform, which should be hospitals worldwide starting Feb. 11, enables surgeons to practice knot-tying and advanced suturing techniques virtually through a series of over 45 realistic training scenarios.
Mimic has a whole YouTube channel dedicated to showing some of these exercises.
In the minute-long video below, one doctor explains the startling gap between a surgeon’s knowledge and his ability to demonstrate that knowledge.
If you’re able to stomach the implications, you can play Surgeon Simulator 2013 in your browser or download it for PC, Mac, or Linux. You can also vote for it on Steam Greenlight.