Anesthesia Doctors Use Lego Building Blocks to Practice Techniques

New anesthesia and medical training techniques are regularly being created, however a recent study found that a familiar childrens toy can benefit doctors training: Legos. Anesthesiologists require high levels of accuracy, dexterity, and patience, and specific types of training help them practice these skills. Read more to learn how Lego building blocks help establish practice techniques for doctors in anesthesia.

Researchers developed a task where people copied shapes using bricks that they could see in a two way mirror. This strange but useful tactic was used to train and help the doctors to maintain the patience and understanding of 2 and 3 dimensional objects. These objects were premade, giving the doctor a view of what the object had to look like. The doctor would then recreate the object to exactly match. Researchers asked the doctors to use Lego Duplo Building Bricks in a 2 way mirror recreating these objects until perfect. Making them train and recreate the objects gave them the practice needed to better their hand eye coordination and movement when going to inject the anesthesia. The Lego Bricks were a simple solution for training.

They found this simple training improved student performance in an ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia task.

“This research provides a simple and innovative solution to improving people’s spatial rotation and awareness. That is, to perform many modern medical technical skills a doctor has to understand how a two-dimensional image of an organ relates to the three-dimensional world inside the body.” Technology is rapidly changing for this anesthesia medical industry, allowing those to change and adapt to the new ways coming will bring costs down, innovation to grow and better research for future market growth. Within the simulations used for the research and practice, time was shaved off the doctors time making the process quicker and more efficient. This advancement and study shows the potential anesthesia has to grow and make better for hospitals, doctors, medical industry, and most importantly the safety of the patient.