October 21, 2025

Hidden Levels: Surgical Precision (Side Quest)

24 minutes

Dr. James "Butch" Rosser was a pioneer in minimally invasive surgery in the 1990s. When he credited his surgical skills to video games, people dismissed him. The prevailing narrative was that kids who played video games became killers, not doctors. So Butch set out on quest: to show how video games can help make better doctors.

Show notes:

The impact of video games on training surgeons in the 21st century

(JAMA Surgery)

Study: High-School Video Gamers Match Physicians at Robotic-Surgery Simulation (Slate)

We Have to Operate, but Let's Play First (The New York Times)

He’s really on his game (Orlando Sentinel)

Credits

This episode was written and produced by Grace Tatter and edited by Meg Cramer. Mix, sound design and music composition by Emily Jankowski.

"Hidden Levels" is a production of 99% Invisible and WBUR's Endless Thread. The Managing Producer for Hidden Levels is Chris Berube. The series was created by Ben Brock Johnson. Series theme by Swan Real and Paul Vaitkus. Series art by Aaron Nestor.

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