Last week I finally got around to purchasing Trauma Centre for the Nintendo DS. Having now performed three operations (not altogether successfully in one go !) I think this software/platform has much to offer in reflecting how similar educational health software packages could be produced and used with great success.

This very immersive environment puts you under time pressure - 5 minutes only to perform the operations and you have to remember sequences and techniques from previous operations to utilise in the next one in a high pressure situation. Operations can then be retried once unlocked to improve on previous attempts and to use as an aide memoire for future ops.

Learning in an environment like this (even though there are no proper medical techniques or learning outcomes to pick up) has huge potential over and above traditional methods of teaching.