SICKO

Overview

After playing Septris and seeing its application in medical education, a team of surgeons contacted EdTech to develop a similar game for surgeons. Surgical Improvement of Clinical Knowledge Ops ("SICKO") was developed as Septris' successor, and is designed to teach and assess surgical decision making skills for practicing surgeons in treating acute and sub-acute surgical conditions. 

SICKO, like Septris, is playable on mobile devices with a screen resolution of an iPad (1024x768) and higher. SICKO was created on top of the existing Septris platform, which used JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, and XML web technologies to ensure cross-platform compatibility and to reach as wide an audience as possible.The course will fill the gap between didactic learning and clinical application in developing an interactive course that offers an opportunity to learn and apply surgical decision making skills for practicing surgeons in treating acute and sub-acute surgical conditions and complications through interactive training to facilitate deliberate practice without compromising patient safety.

SICKO began development in December 2012 and was officially launched in June 2013. 

SICKO is free to play, and can be accessed online here: http://cme.stanford.edu/sicko

Learners can also submit an application for CME credit upon completion of the game.

Surgical Decision Making

SICKO is designed to fill the gap between didactic learning and clinical application by offering players an opportunity to learn and apply surgical decision making skills through an interactive, virtual patient simulator exercise. This allows learners to practice deliberately without compromising patient safety, and also allows instructors to assess players' decision making processes and identify areas of weakness.

SICKO Gameplay

The objective in SICKO is to try to heal a total of 16 patients, while simultaneously treating 3 at a time. When a patient reaches the top of the screen, he or she will be discharged, and a new patient will be assigned for treatment until the player has completed the level. There are a total of 3 levels with increasing difficulty, and approximately 5-6 patients per level. Without adequate treatment, patients' health will constantly drop. The patient dies if he or she reaches the bottom of the screen.

The player clicks on a patient's portrait to select the patient, which allows them to view the patient's vitals and history, and also allows the player to apply treatments and run labs for that patient. The player can also view the patient's chart, which includes lab results, any pending labs, currently applied treatments, and their durations.

Many patients will need to be taken to the surgical operating room. Sending a patient to the operating room brings up the operating room mini-game, where the other patients are paused and a player has to focus on treating the single patient. Different actions performed within the operating room can lead to different outcomes (like a "choose your own adventure"-type game), and the player must successfully operate on the patient for a full recovery.

SICKO Screenshots

SICKO Loading Screen

SICKO Gameplay Screen

Operating Room Mini-Game

Dr. SICKO Facial Expressions Concept Art

Reception

Reception to SICKO has been largely positive. SICKO has been featured on various internet blogs and news websites, including Stanford News Center,  SCOPE Blog, AAMC.org, and more. The game has also been showcased at the 2013 Medicine X conference as well as the 2014 IMSH Serious Games and Virtual Environments Arcade where it won co-runner up (tied with Septris) for the Best In Show award.

Since release in December 2012, SICKO has been accessed by over 38,000 unique users, played over 2,500 times, and completed 250 times (as of July 2014). Septris has been accessed at least once in 95 countries, with the average user spending at least 11 minutes on the game.

Aside from the United States, SICKO has also been popular in Ireland, Hungary, Parkistan, and Canada.

Content Expert Team

  • James N. Lau, MD
  • Lisa Shieh, MD, PhD
  • Dana Lin, MD
  • Julia Park, MD

Technical Implementation Team

  • Jamie Tsui
  • Pauline Brutlag
  • James Laird
  • Zak Akin
  • Jonathan Tatum
  • Glenn Zephier

Funding

Septris was funded by a Continuing Medical Education (CME) Pfizer grant.

Presentations, Publications, and Press

Play SICKO

Project Start Date

December 2012

Project Complete Date

June 2013, Ongoing Support and Use

Quick Links