JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background Surgical residents underutilize opportunities for traditional laparoscopic simulation training. Serious gaming may increase residents’ motivation to practice laparoscopic skills. However, little is known about the effectiveness of serious gaming for laparoscopic skills training. We therefore conducted a study to investigate construct validity of the laparoscopic serious game Underground. Method All study participants completed two levels of Underground. Performance for two novel variables (time and error) were compared between novices (n=54, prior experience <10 laparoscopic procedures), intermediates (n=26, prior experience 10-100 laparoscopic procedures) and experts (n=20, prior experience >100 laparoscopic procedures) using AN(C)OVA analysis. We corrected for gender and video game experience. Results Controlling for gender and video game experience, the effect of prior laparoscopic experience on “time” differed significantly (F(2, 106) = 4.77, P <.01). Both experts and intermediates outperformed novices in terms of task completion speed; experts did not outperform intermediates. A similar trend was seen for rates of gameplay errors. Both gender (F(1, 106) = 14.42, P <.00, in favor of men) and prior video game experience (F(1, 106) = 5.20, P =.03, in favor of high-experience gamers) modulated the “time” variable. Conclusion We established construct validity for the laparoscopic serious game Underground. Serious gaming may aid laparoscopic skills development. Previous gaming experience and gender also influenced Underground performance. The in-game performance metrics were not suitable for statistical evaluation. To unlock the full potential of serious gaming for training, a more formal approach to performance metric development is needed.