Surgeons need special motor skills, especially for endoscopic surgery through the belly. Nickel et al. (2015) report the results of a study with two learning methods for motor skill training. The VR group underwent a virtual reality training (VR group), the Box group participated in a mixture of online courses and classical training of motor skill with the so-called Box-trainer.
The primary dependent variable was the result on the OSATS test (interval scaled, normally distributed, high scores = good performance). A few more dependent variables were assessed, including a knowledge test (interval scaled), operation time (dichotomized, above or below 80 min), and efficiency ratings (ordinal scale, 1=bad ... 5=good).
Here we look at the speed of the operation. The publication states the following:
“Laparoscopy-naïve medical students were randomized into two groups. (...) The VR group completed the operation more often within 80 min than the Box group ( vs. ). The percentages correspond to successes (out of ) in the VR group and successes (out of ) in the Box group.”