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

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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.

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Acknowledgements

Fondazione Arpa (http://www.fondazionearpa.it) supported the study and donated dV-Trainer simulator to EndoCAS Center. The authors thank Mr. Rick Corlett and Mr. Andreas Koch from Mimic Corporation for the technical support during the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EndoCAS, Center for Computer Assisted Surgery, University of Pisa, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Andrea Moglia, Luca Morelli, Vincenzo Ferrari & Mauro Ferrari

  2. Multidisciplinary Center of Robotic Surgery, University Hospital of Pisa, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Luca Morelli

  3. Information Engineering Department, University of Pisa, 56122, Pisa, Italy

    Vincenzo Ferrari

  4. Cisanello Teaching Hospital of Pisa, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Franco Mosca

  5. Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa, 56214, Pisa, Italy

    Alfred Cuschieri

  6. Institute for Medical Science and Technology, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD2 1FD, UK

    Alfred Cuschieri

Authors
  1. Andrea Moglia
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  2. Luca Morelli
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  3. Vincenzo Ferrari
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  4. Mauro Ferrari
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  5. Franco Mosca
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  6. Alfred Cuschieri
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Moglia.

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Disclosures

Andrea Moglia, Luca Morelli, Vincenzo Ferrari, Mauro Ferrari, Franco Mosca, Alfred Cuschieri have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.

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Moglia, A., Morelli, L., Ferrari, V. et al. Distribution of innate psychomotor skills recognized as important for surgical specialization in unconditioned medical undergraduates. Surg Endosc 32, 4087–4095 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-018-6146-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-018-6146-8

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