Abstract
Background
Current surgical education curricula focus mainly on the acquisition of technical
skill rather than clinical and operative judgment. SICKO (Surgical Improvement of
Clinical Knowledge Ops) is a novel gaming platform developed to address this critical
need. A pilot study was performed to collect validity evidence for SICKO as an assessment
for surgical decision making.
Methods
Forty-nine subjects stratified into 4 levels of expertise were recruited to play SICKO.
Later, players were surveyed regarding the realism of the gaming platform as well
as the clinical competencies required of them while playing SICKO.
Results
Each group of increasing expertise outperformed the less experienced groups. Mean
total game scores for the novice, junior resident, senior resident, and expert groups
were 5,461, 8,519, 11,404, and 13,913, respectively (P = .001). Survey results revealed high scores for realism and content.
Conclusions
SICKO holds the potential to be not only an engaging and immersive educational tool,
but also a valid assessment in the armamentarium of surgical educators.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 20, 2014
Received in revised form:
August 4,
2014
Received:
May 13,
2014
Footnotes
The development of SICKO was funded by a grant provided by the Stanford Center for Continuing Medical Education.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc.
