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Aug 21, 2008 12:31 pm US/Pacific
Eye-Tracking Equipment Tests Surgeons' Expertise
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Ever wonder how to tell if your surgeon is really an expert? Technology being developed to do everything from designing better web pages to helping fighter pilots aim missiles, and it's all in the eyes.
Ever wonder how to tell if your surgeon is really an expert? Believe it or not, even doctors admit that it's all pretty subjective.
But now military technology may be able to help tell just how good a surgeon is.
It's technology being developed to do everything from designing better web pages to helping fighter pilots aim missiles, and it's all in the eyes.
"This is eye-tracking equipment that looks at the movement of your eyes," Dr. Louis Kavoussi, of North Shore University Hospital, said. "It measures 250 variables per second, and includes movements of left-to-right or up-and-down, pupil area diameter, and blink rate."
Laparoscopic or arthroscopic surgeries mean that doctors are actually looking at a television screen when they're operating, rather than directly at the patient. Where they look or what their eyes are doing may be able to tell how good they are.
"Expert surgeons tend to focus on the operative field, [they] look at a certain area," Kavoussi said. "Their pupils get quiet and don't oscillate as much, and they don't blink as much. Whereas a novice is not quite sure where they're looking – they look all over the operative field, they tend to blink more, and the pupils tend to dilate or shrink a lot more rapidly."
"There's no way to cheat, because it's all subconscious," Dr. Scero Andonian said. "You can't claim to be an expert if you're blinking too much, or your eye movement... [is] too fast."
More importantly, it gives surgeons-in-training a way to monitor their progress.
"So you start off, you probably see some modest numbers and parameters," Dr. Tim Ataalla said. "As you go along in your training, you probably see improvements and benchmarks and goals for yourself."
Dr. Kavoussi, who's pioneered this methodology, says that eventually eye-tracking may also be able to tell when a surgeon is too tired to perform a procedure or even tell if the surgeon is impaired by drugs or alcohol.
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