Computers in surgical education and the operating room

Medicine has gone through major changes over the last 50 years. Today it is recognized that medical knowledge doubles every 6-8 years. It is also true that with the advent of many new medical procedures, surgeons must continue to learn new techniques throughout their careers; this was not the case in the past. Significant changes have also occurred during the same period in computers. It has recently become apparent that there exists a synergy between these two industries - computers can be used to assist surgeons in both initial education and in learning new skills. The National Capital Area Medical Simulation Center is a unique resource that makes use of state-of-the-art computer resources to teach resuscitation and other skills. Both computerized mannequins and virtual reality training devices are used to teach surgical principles and technical procedures. The natural progression of this technology will be for virtual reality simulations to be used for selecting, training, certifying, and recertifying surgeons. Ultimately, surgeons will practice operative procedures using 3D data sets of the patients they plan to operate the next day and then use recordings to play back their optimal procedure robotically on their patients.