Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct;32(10):4087-4095.
doi: 10.1007/s00464-018-6146-8. Epub 2018 Mar 14.

Distribution of innate psychomotor skills recognized as important for surgical specialization in unconditioned medical undergraduates

Andrea Moglia  1 , Luca Morelli  2   3 , Vincenzo Ferrari  2   4 , Mauro Ferrari  2 , Franco Mosca  5 , Alfred Cuschieri  6   7
Affiliations

Distribution of innate psychomotor skills recognized as important for surgical specialization in unconditioned medical undergraduates

Andrea Moglia et al. Surg Endosc. 2018 Oct.

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing interest for a test assessing objectively the innate aptitude for surgery as a craft specialty to complement the current selection process of surgical residents. The aim of this study was to quantify the size of individuals with high, average, and low level of innate psychomotor skills among medical students.

Methods: A volunteer sample of 155 medical students, without prior experience with surgical simulator, executed five tasks at a virtual simulator for robot-assisted surgery. They had to reach proficiency twice consecutively in each before moving to the next one. A weighting based on time and number of attempts needed to reach proficiency was assigned to each task.

Results: Nine students (5.8%) out of 155 significantly outperformed all the others on median (i.q.r.) weighted time [44.7 (42.2-47.3) min vs. 98.5 (70.8-131.8) min, p < 0.001], and number of attempts to reach proficiency [14 (12-15) vs. 23 (19-32.75), p < 0.001). Seventeen students (11.0%) scored significantly much worse than the rest on median weighted time [202.2 (182.5-221.0) min vs. 84.3 (65.7-114.4) min, p < 0.001], and number of attempts [42 (40-48) vs. 22 (17.25-28), p < 0.001]. Low correlation between simulator scores and extracurricular activities, like videogames and musical instruments, was found.

Conclusions: The test successfully identified two groups straddling the large cohort with average innate aptitude for psychomotor skills: (i) innately gifted and (ii) with scarce level. Hence, exercises on a virtual simulator are a valid test of innate manual dexterity and can be considered to complement the selection process for a surgical training program, primarily to identify individuals with low innate aptitude for surgery and advise them to consider specialization in other (non-craft) medical specialties.

Keywords: Innate ability test for surgery; Innate aptitude for surgery; Robotic surgery simulator; da Vinci simulator.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. J Endourol. 2016 Feb;30(2):146-52 - PubMed
    1. Am J Surg. 2001 Aug;182(2):110-6 - PubMed
    1. Ann Surg. 2013 Sep;258(3):440-9 - PubMed
    1. J Urol. 2012 Mar;187(3):998-1002 - PubMed
    1. J Am Coll Surg. 2013 Dec;217(6):1020-7 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources