Touch Surgery: the iPad app that teaches surgeons how to operate

Forget the board game Operation: this new mobile surgical simulator lets you tap and swipe your way through the steps of an operation in a radical new model of interactive trainingWith an effortless swipe of the finger, you slice open the patient's skin. A gentle pinch and the flesh is prised apart to reveal layers of tissue. Another swipe and a pair of scissors descends into view and begins to cut into the muscle. A few more swipes, taps and pinches and, hey presto, you've removed an appendix.This is Touch Surgery, a new iPhone and iPad app designed to help trainee surgeons learn the steps of their operations. Described as a "mobile surgical simulator", it is not to be confused with the fun-for-all-the-family game Operation. Remember the nervous thrill of trying to remove a miniature plastic rib with a pair of tweezers without setting the buzzer off? Well, Touch Surgery takes it to a whole new level: every step of each procedure is animated in graphic 3D detail. It's not for the squeamish."We came up with the idea in response to the problem of surgeons' hours being cut," says Jean Nehme, who developed the project with fellow surgeons Andre Chow, Sanjay Purkayastha and Advait Gandhe, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon with a knack for digital modelling, who conceived the original digital surgical simulator in his spare time. "The European working time directive has cut doctors' hours from around 100 a week to 40, meaning trainee surgeons can't get the valuable experience they n...
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