Wiimote used to train surgeons

Before you go under the knife, you might want to ask the surgeon to play some Wii Sports.

At least that's the theory offered by medical researchers at a Phoenix hospital. According to a news report on New York's WABC-TV, residents at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital enjoyed a 50% increase in surgical skills after practicing with a custom-designed training device powered by the Nintendo Wii's remote controller.

Doctors at the hospital discovered a correlation between playing games on the motion-sensing Wii and certain surgical procedures by using "cyber gloves" to record the fine movements of surgeons' hands. After making some adjustments, they placed the Wiimote training tool in the hands of residents and have been impressed by the results.

The residents seem to like it, too.

"This does really help," said surgical resident Dr. Jeff Henke. "It kind of coordinates your hand movements, gets you prepared to go into the operating room and perform laparoscopic surgery."

The new Wii system is also far more cost-effective than traditional training devices.

"One of the problems we've had over the years is we had no method to teach surgeons surgical skills without going into surgery, " Banner Good's Dr. Mark Smith told News 8 Austin in a Q&A. "We now have simulators that help them develop those skills. The problem is they are incredibly expensive -- like a flight simulator for a pilot. This gives us a much less costly way to train these fine motor skills that the surgeons employ during surgery."

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