Assessing the effects of manual dexterity and playing computer games on catheter-wire manipulation for inexperienced operators.

AIM: To investigate the effect of playing computer games and manual dexterity on catheter-wire manipulation in a mechanical aortic model. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Medical student volunteers filled in a preprocedure questionnaire assessing their exposure to computer games. Their manual dexterity was measured using a smartphone game. They were then shown a video clip demonstrating renal artery cannulation and were asked to reproduce this. All attempts were timed. Two-tailed Student's t-test was used to compare continuous data, while Fisher's exact test was used for categorical data. RESULTS: Fifty students aged 18-22 years took part in the study. Forty-six completed the task at an average of 168 seconds (range 103-301 seconds). There was no significant difference in the dexterity score or time to cannulate the renal artery between male and female students. Students who played computer games for >10 hours per week had better dexterity scores than those who did not play computer games: 9.1 versus 10.2 seconds (p=0.0237). Four of 19 students who did not play computer games failed to complete the task, while all of those who played computer games regularly completed the task (p=0.0168). CONCLUSION: Playing computer games is associated with better manual dexterity and ability to complete a basic interventional radiology task for novices.

Achieved competences in temporomandibular disorders/orofacial pain: a comparison between two dental schools in Europe.

AIMS: The aim was to study achieved competences in temporomandibular disorders (TMD)/orofacial pain (OP) at two universities by comparing student's knowledge and understanding, satisfaction with their education and confidence in their clinical competences of TMD/OP. METHODS: The study was conducted in collaboration between Malmö University, Sweden­which uses problem-based learning­and the University of Naples Federico II, Italy­which uses traditional educational methods. Final-semester dental students responded to a self-report questionnaire regarding their knowledge and understanding, interpretation of cases histories, clinical experience, satisfaction and confidence in clinical examination, management and treatment evaluation. RESULTS: No significant difference was found between the students regarding knowledge and understanding. Eighty-seven per cent of the Malmö students and 96% of the Naples students met the criterion on achieved competence. Malmö students had a higher per cent of correct diagnoses than Naples students in the interpretation of case histories. Overall, Malmö students reported most clinical experience and higher confidence than Naple students. CONCLUSIONS: The main findings were that students from Malmö and Naples were, similar in knowledge and understanding of TMD/OP and in satisfaction with their clinical competences. However, Malmö students perceived more confidence in clinical management of patients with TMD/OP. This may reflect that, besides the theoretical part of the programme, a sufficient level of clinical exposure to patients with TMD/OP is essential to gain competences in TMD/OP.