PartⅢ Script of the Audiovisual Material
Virtual Reality Helps Ready Surgeons for the Operating Room
This may look like a video game,but it's actually a new tool that could revolutionize the way doctors train for the operating room.It's called the V-Blast and it's a virtual surgery simulator,developed by Rensselear Polytechnic Institute's Suvranu De.The simulator uses touch feedback to help doctors develop the fine motor skills needed for laparoscopic surgery,a common weight loss procedure.De says the hi-tech training tool provides an experience that is as authentic as practicing in the operating room,but eliminates potential harm to patients.
Professor Suvranu De：These are all done by trial and error now either on enamelled models or animals or directly on human patients,essentially using patients as guinea pigs.Typically we know that learning occurs which the number of patients that a person does,a surgeon takes to learn a particular surgery is of the order of anywhere between 50- 100.That many patients are typically at risk when a surgical procedure is learned in the operating room.
The virtual surgery simulator uses touch feedback,which realistically replicates the sensations a surgeon would feel when performing the procedure.In its early stages,the device used two forceps to pick up blocks that had the same resistance that organs and tissue would have.In its latest form,however,students look at lifelike graphic versions of the esophagus,stomach and spleen,and highly sophisticated algorithms create sounds and visuals that alert doctors when making mistakes.The RPI team have been collaborating on the simulator with doctors and residents at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.Dr.Neil Kantack,a first year surgical resident,has tested both generations of the simulator.
Dr.Neil Kantack：You have real life feedback when you grasp a block.You can feel the amount of resistance in your hands change.You can understand the grasp of block—your hands feel it.Your brain can sense it.In the new version,there are no actual blocks.But instead there's a screen with virtual blocks and the device uses,you know,feedback technology to simulate that resistance so that you feel like you're actually performing the activity on a physical object that doesn't really exist.(https://www.daowen.com)
Ultimately researchers say the V-Blast will give patients more confidence in their doctors before going under the knife because they are able to use the simulator to recognize deficiencies and get extra practice.
Dr.Steven Schwaitzberg,president of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons（SAGES)says virtual technologies like the V-Blast are revolutionizing training for surgical students.
Dr.Steven Schwaitzberg：I believe that we will figure out a way to model a human body in the virtual world and then we will be able to do...just like the pilots,the first 10%～25%of your training all virtually so that you walk into your early operations with a degree of competency that hasn't been seen before in the history of surgery.
With technologies like the V-Blast,practice really can make perfect.Sharon Reich,Reuters.