Simulation and virtual reality for surgical education.

Rapid advancements in technology have dramatically changed the way our daily activities are conducted. In the practice of medicine and surgery, technological advances over the past few decades have had an enormous impact on the diagnosis and treatment of disease. In contrast, our methods of teaching surgeons to perform operations remain mired in the 100 year old Halstedian apprenticeship model. In this system, surgeons often learn to operate based on the principle of "see one, do one, teach one." Educational opportunities are largely dependent on chance as a patient with a particular disease pattern must present to the surgeon in order to achieve specific educational goals. Live patients are often used as the initial "practice session" for the learning surgeon in this model of education.