Serious gaming in women’s health care

Computer-based (serious) gaming is a new field in medical education, which has the potential to become an important tool for healthcare professionals for learning a range of clinical skills. To evaluate the current status of serious gaming in medicine, we performed a systematic literature review. In June 2011, we undertook a search in PubMed and Embase databases with the MeSH terms video games, education, training, gaming and healthcare. Thirty relevant papers were identified, reviewed and summarised. The studies showed that serious gaming is a stimulating learning method and that students are enthusiastic about its use. Studies have shown that previous recreational gaming is associated with greater surgical skill, especially for laparoscopy. In addition to surgical skills, serious gaming is potentially a good method for learning clinical decision-making and patient interaction. Games are already being developed for teaching specific clinical skills, for example in cardiology and orthopaedics for example. Initial studies suggest that serious gaming is likely to be an effective training method; however, there is a paucity of studies showing the conclusive clinical benefit of serious gaming. Future studies should focus on demonstrating the clinical effectiveness of serious gaming on skills used in patient care.