title: Can interview prior to laparoscopic simulator training predict a trainee's skills?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Our institute started laparoscopic simulator training for medical students in 2006. During the training, we observed considerable interindividual differences in laparoscopic skills among those students. This study aimed to investigate the predictive factors that affect laparoscopic skill by assessing the students' training results data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-three, fifth-year medical students were asked several questions and were divided into 2 groups depending on their answers. The participants performed an object-positioning module on a ProMIS simulator (Haptica, Inc., Dublin, Ireland). Execution time, instrument path length, and economy of movement for each trial were recorded on ProMIS. Comparisons of mean performance measures between the 2 groups were made using a Mann-Whitney U test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Interest about laparoscopic surgery and accomplishment in playing piano did not affect the skillfulness significantly. The students who had an interest in television (TV) games completed the task in less time (p = 0.046) and had a shorter left instrument path length (p = 0.012). The students who thought themselves manually dexterous completed the task in less time (p = 0.008). The students who were confident about driving completed the task in less time (p = 0.0247).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our interview, the factors that had a relationship to laparoscopic skills were favorableness to TV games, manual dexterity, and confidence about driving. These results were expected because TV games and driving a car require the same abilities as laparoscopic surgery. Psychomotor, perceptual, or visuospatial ability are essential for good performance. In conclusion, our study suggests that the interview can be an effective measure to examine the aptitude of medical students without the use of a simulator.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. nomura-t@nms.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyashita
authors.forename: Suman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shrestha
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Makino
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Ryouko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aso
authors.forename: Akinobu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimura
authors.forename: Shigeo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akira
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tajiri
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D008348:Manikins; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000145:classification; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult