With the technology in the video game industry rapidly improving, many games can give interesting glimpses of real-life experiences, such as Surgeon Simulator. Developed by Bossa Studios, this game provides players with an entertaining surgery simulation experience while still holding some educational merit. Thus, it makes it interesting to see what real professionals in the field think of games such as Surgeon Simulator that reflect their daily lives.
One Twitch Streamer by the name of VyseDomo had a similar thought. The Twitch Streamer invited a surgeon onto their stream, with VyseDomo asking their friend to play the game with him and give her honest review. The doctor brought on stream is a practicing hospitalist of six years specializing in internal medicine, which involves operating on all internal organs other than the brain.
The doctor watched multiple levels in the stream, including the heart transplant, brain surgery, and the kidney transplant level. She gave various criticisms about the human anatomy being wrong, such as the number of ribs in the body, but pointed out that some tools were ones she would use in the field. Overall, the doctor found Surgeon Simulator to be a fun experience despite the inaccuracies.
Clips from the stream were becoming viral and spreading through places like the r/LiveStreamFail subreddit. One clip, in particular, is a quick outtake of the doctor making a joke about leaving the patient in a vulnerable state so that they can come back for another surgery and the doctors can charge them more money. While it should be emphasized that the doctor from the stream wasn't being serious, it brought up discussions from users about the state of the medical industry.
Multiple Reddit users were discussing how many doctors in the industry are pressured to perform operations faster so that they can do more surgeries in a day and make more money for their facility. Whether a neurosurgeon or a veterinarian, there is a similar trend in the medical industry to prioritize funds over the potential quality of care. The doctor during the stream also talked about some of her struggles in the past due to being a female POC doctor that had to deal with racist patients.
In the end, the stream was a success, getting some of the most views on VyseDomo's streams and bringing in almost 50,000 views for the clip. The stream offered both a humorous and educational perspective into the medical industry. Hopefully, VyseDomo will do similar streams such as this in the future, especially with the new Surgeon Simulator 2 becoming more widely available.
Surgeon Simulator is currently available on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, PlayStation 4, Android, Nintendo Switch.