[EAS] Top Gun Laparoscopy

pjk pjk at design.eng.yale.edu
Thu Feb 17 22:43:24 EST 2005


Subject:   Top Gun Laparoscopy

Dear Colleagues -

> If Dr. James Rosser Jr. had his way, every surgeon in America would
> have three indispensable tools on the operating room tray: a
> scalpel, sutures, and a video game controller.
> <http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66086,00.html>

When I try to explain that my schedule is in flux and why I'm having
trouble scheduling a meeting, I often use the metaphor of hostile
aliens zooming in from all directions.

But the training of surgeons with video games? I suppose it's the
coming thing, and I'm just being reactionary. Heck, there is even an
endowed professorship now for the study of electronic games. I
suppose that will become a joint appointment with the Medical
School.  And how does WIRED magazine so unfailingly keep its finger
on the pulse of progress?  --PJK

> (from NewsScan Daily, 10 February 2005)
> 
> PROFESSOR OF GAMES
>      Electronics Arts, the world's largest game publisher, has
> joined with the University of Southern California to establish the
> nation's first endowed university chair for the study of electronic
> gaming. Bing Gordon, the chief creative officer and a founder of
> Electronic Arts, has been named the inaugural holder of the faculty
> chair at the USC School of Cinema-Television. Accepting the
> appointment, Gordon said that "today's students, who are already the
> world's leading experts in new technology, are the best bet to have
> the vision and energy to invent sweeping change" in digital
> entertainment. (AP/USA Today 9 Feb 2005)
> <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-02-09-ea-founder-usc-chair_x.htm>
> 
> (from INNOVATION, 16 February 2005)
> 
> SIMS WITH SYMPTOMS
>       Researchers at the Bioengineering Institute in Auckland, New
> Zealand,  are combining their expertise in biomechanics and
> computational physiology  to develop digital models of every system
> and anatomical feature of the  human body -- from major organs to
> molecular functions. The Physiome  Project -- patterned after the
> Human Genome Project -- is actually a  worldwide initiative,
> involving scientists in the U.S., Israel, Japan and the U.K., as
> well as New Zealand. The goal is to create digital replicas that
> can be used by physicians to test certain treatments to ensure that 
> the optimal regimen is prescribed. Physiome would also enable
> medical engineers to build customized implants, such as pacemakers
> or heart valves, and would allow surgeons to do dry runs on a
> digital patient to determine  the best approach before they pick up
> a scalpel. "Today practically everything we see and touch was
> prototyped by computers. One glaring exception is medicine -- but
> there's no reason to expect that the technology won't move there,"
> says Randy Haluck, director of minimally invasive surgery and
> surgical simulation at Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
> Meanwhile, pharmaceutical giants like Aventis and Novartis are 
> hovering over the research in the hope that the technology will
> enable them to develop and test new medicines before forking out
> billions for risky clinical trials. (Wired Feb 2005)
> <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/start.html>





More information about the EAS-INFO mailing list