Doctors play Super Monkey Ball 2 to warm-up before surgery

Surgeons at Florida Hospital Celebration Health are playing video games like Super Monkey Ball 2 before performing surgery to warm-up and improve efficiency, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Research conducted at the hospital with more than 300 physicians over three years found that those who warmed-up for as little as six minutes with a game like Super Monkey Ball 2 before performing simulated laparoscopic surgery were "more efficient." The warm-up helped them "suppress errors," according to Dr. James Rosser, the general surgeon behind the research.

"We got all this information ... and I said, 'Wow, we need to put a special place for surgeons to go and warm-up with these video games,'" Rosser said, showing off a new gaming area in the hospital's physicians lounge that allows for just that.

Rosser's research found that surgeons who played video games in the past for more than three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, were 27 percent faster and scored 26 percent better overall than surgeons who never played video games.

"It is the error reduction that will have the most significant effect on patient safety," Rosser said. "I want all the surgeons to warm-up and make sure they give Super Monkey Ball a chance."