An Innovative Application of High-Fidelity Medical Simulators to Objectively Demonstrate the Impact of Sports on the Development of Fine Motor Skills—A Pilot Study

Operative medicine needs fine manual skills; therefore, several educational training programs focus on skill development as well. Related to sports sciences, various sport types are also dependent on fine motor skills. We hypothesized that an adequate sport training program may contribute to the development of medical students' manual dexterity. We conducted objectively tests using high-fidelity medical simulators. Volunteer medical students were delegated to table tennis group (TG), where students participated in 2 h/week of table tennis training for 7 weeks, or to a Control group (CG) that included students without regular sport activity. Objective data on fine motor skills during completion of basic modules of high-fidelity vascular catheterization and arthroscopy simulators were recorded before and after the 7-week period. In the TG group, significant differences were found in time and quality parameters compared to CG. On the vascular catheterization simulator basic navigation module, all time parameters improved. On the arthroscopy simulator basic skill module, the total performance and safety scores significantly improved, and procedure time decreased. In conclusion, high-fidelity vascular catheterization and arthroscopy medical simulators with basic training modules could provide useful feedback for fine motor skill development. The intensive table tennis training program was effective in maintaining/improving medical students' fine manual skills.