Revolutionary research proves that Virtual Reality training leads to dramatic improvement in Operation Room performance in minimal invasive surgery

The landmark study (Virtual Reality Training Improves Operating Room Performance: Results of a Randomized, Double-Blinded Study"), by world experts from Yale University and Queens University Belfast was recently presented. It shows that surgeons who train on Procedicus® MIST perform 29% faster, made six times fewer errors and were five times less likely to injure non-target tissue, gallbladder or liver when performing surgical removal of a gallbladder (laparoscopic cholecystectomy) in human patients.

Revolutionary research proves that Virtual Reality training leads to dramatic improvement in Operation Room performance in minimal invasive surgery

From VR to OR? – Mission Completed…

Gothenburg, Sweden – June 6, 2002 - The landmark study (Virtual Reality Training Improves Operating Room Performance: Results of a Randomized, Double-Blinded Study"), by world experts* from Yale University and Queens University Belfast was recently presented. It shows that surgeons who train on Procedicus® MIST perform 29% faster, made nine times fewer errors and were five times less likely to injure non-target tissue, gallbladder or liver when performing surgical removal of a gallbladder (laparoscopic cholecystectomy).

This is the first time that the clinical benefit of training with a surgical simulator (the Procedicus® MIST System) has been shown and the dramatic results should lead to a new approach to surgical skills training. Procedicus® MIST is the only fully validated VR surgical trainer - any category. It will be the only proven alternative for a long time since this kind of research and validation takes several years to complete", says Jonas Ohlsson, President of Mentice AB.

The study was presented during the annual meeting of the American Surgical Association in Hot Springs, Virginia, April 25-27. The Association, founded in 1880, is the most prestigious group of surgeons in the United States. It has also been presented at the EAES 2002 in Lisbon, Portugal, June 02-05, the major European association for endoscopic surgery.

Among those taking part in the research was Dr. Tony Gallagher, from the School of Psychology at Queens University Belfast. This suggests that virtual surgery training is a very powerful addition to what is currently considered the ‘best training approach," he said. Dr Gallagher added that the study had also shown that all the surgeons, even those with more than seven years experience, showed a significantly improved" performance with the added experience of training on the Procedicus® MIST System. This suggested that even more experienced surgeons can benefit from the use of a surgical simulator, much as experienced airline pilots continually maintain their skills through the use of flying simulators," he said.

The virtual reality system used in the study, the Procedicus® MIST System, is a PC based VR system for objective ambidextrous psychomotor surgical training and assessment. It has tasks of graded complexity, sound learning principles and offers remote training and assessment. Procedicus® MIST is developed and manufactured by Mentice AB. It has a range of modules and exercises that teach different basic skills. There are more than 140 installations worldwide of this system to date.

Mentice Corporation provides turnkey solutions – including hardware, software and technical support – from entry-level skills acquisition to high-fidelity procedural training. Mentice AB is headquartered in Sweden and has a strong international focus with partners globally. Medical Education Technologies Inc. (www.meti.com) is the exclusive North American distributor for all Mentice products. With its range of products in the endovascular, laparoscopy and arthroscopy areas, Mentice has established a new benchmark for minimally invasive surgical simulation.

For further information, contact:    Jonas Ohlsson, President Mentice AB,
   jonas.ohlsson@mentice.com
   Tel: +46-31-7438090

*The team who took part in the research were: Neal Seymour MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Yale; Richard M Satava, Professor of Surgery at Yale; Dr Tony Gallagher, Queens University Belfast; Sanziana Roman MD and Mike OBrien MD, junior surgeons at Yale and Dana Andersen MD, chair of surgery at the University of Massachusetts.