The Underlying Reasons of the Navigation Control Effect on Performance in a Virtual Reality Endoscopic Surgery Training Simulator

ABSTRACT

Navigation control skills of surgeons become very critical for surgical procedures. Strategies improving these skills are important for developing higher-quality surgical training programs. In this study, the underlying reasons of the navigation control effect on performance in a virtual reality-based navigation environment are evaluated. The participants’ performance is measured in conditions: navigation control display and paper-map display. Performance measures were collected from 45 beginners and experienced residents. The results suggest that navigation display significantly improved performance of the participants. Also, navigation was more beneficial for beginners than experienced participants. The underlying reason of the better performance in the navigation condition was due to lower number of looks to the map, which causes attention shifts between information sources. Accordingly, specific training scenarios and user interfaces can be developed to improve the navigation skills of the beginners considering some strategies to lower their number of references to the information sources.

KEYWORDS:

• Navigation control skills
• surgical education
• experience levels
• simulation

Acknowledgments

This study is conducted for improving the scenario designs of the educational materials which are developed for endo-neurosurgery education project (ECE: Tübitak 1001, Project No: 112K287) purposes. The authors would like to thank the support of TÜBİTAK 1001 program for realizing this research. The researchers would also like to thank the ECE project team and the Hacettepe University Medical School for their valuable support throughout the research.

Disclosure statement

Nergiz Ercil CAGILTAY, Erol OZCELIK, Mustafa BERKER and Gonca Gokce MENEKSE DALVEREN have no conflicts of interests of financial and nonfinancial ties to disclose.

Ethical approval

This study is conducted as part of a project that is supported by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. As a mandatory requirement of this support, an ethical approval from “Atilim University Human Research Ethics Board” has been taken and the study is conducted based on this ethical issues.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nergiz Ercil Cagiltay

Nergiz Ercil Cagiltay received the degree in computer engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She received the Ph.D. degree in instructional technologies from the same university. Her main research interests are information systems, surgical education, medical information systems, instructional systems technologies, distance education, and e-learning.

Erol Ozcelik

Erol Ozcelik obtained his Ph.D. in cognitive science from Middle East Technical University. He is currently working at psychology department at Çankaya University. His main research interests include multimedia learning, game-based learning, and cognitive neuroscience.

Mustafa Berker

Mustafa Berker graduated from Hacettepe University Medical Faculty Department of Neurosurgery (1997) in 2001 he completed his Ph.D. program. Became assistant professor (1999), associate professor (2005) and professor (2011) in the same department of the university. His special interests are in endoneurosurgery, head and pituitary tumors.

Gonca Gokce Menekse Dalveren

Gonca Gokce Menekse Dalveren obtained her Ph.D. in software engineering from Atilim University. Currently, she is working as a research assistant at software engineering department at Atilim University. Her research interests are software engineering, eye tracking, medical informatics and surgical education.