December 16, 2015By Lance Baily

New Mobile App ‘Serious Games’ Help Train Surgeons

dr game medical simulation

Yesterday we covered how useful a LinkedIn account is for finding medical simulation resources, which you can read about here. Today another fascinating article popped up on our feed regarding two new games that are designed to improve the performance of Surgeons!


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Marlies Schijven is a Professor of Surgery who is also the Chair on Serious Gaming, Simulation and Applied Mobile Healthcare. In close collaboration with Dutch game companies, she developed two apps that surgeons in training can use to practice their skills with a mobile game. According to Schijven, “Lots of people like playing a quick game on their smartphone. You can take advantage of that.” The apps are designed for professionals; you need to have medical expertise to be able to answer the questions correctly. The first, Medialis from game company Little Chicken, helps you learn how to quickly make decisions. You race against the clock to answer multiple choice questions about medical issues, such as removing a gallbladder using keyhole surgery or respiratory problems. At the end of the game, you can share your score with colleagues or with your instructor, says Schijven. You can challenge other players, and keep track of your score or share it by SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.



The game “Medialis’ can be downloaded in Google Play and the Itunes Appstore.

The second app is called “Dr Game: Surgeon Trouble” and was developed by the game company “WeirdBeard” in close collaboration with the experts from AMC. During the game, something goes wrong with the equipment that is essential for a laparoscopic surgeon. The player needs to go into trouble-shooter mode to solve the problem. According to Schijven, it’s the first time that apps like this are available which have been thoroughly medically evaluated in advance – both games have been validated by the AMC. “We have shown that surgeons perform better thanks to gaming. That’s why it’s logical to develop mobile games. For example, in a test situation, surgeons in training who play Dr Game re ­ cognise problems more quickly, and are better at solving them than surgeons who were trained the ‘old -fashioned’ way. As from 2016, both games are obligatory for our medical residents to use in preparation for laparoscopic training”

The game ‘Dr. Game Surgeon Trouble’ can be downloaded for free in Google Play and the Itunes Appstore.


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Read the full article about the games on LinkedIn!


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