There’s no evidence that screen time makes surgeons bad at their job

Screens are a part of surgery

Screens are a part of surgery

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Surgical students are less capable than their forebears, due to spending too much time with screens and not enough with physical materials. These claims, from Imperial College London’s professor of surgical education Roger Kneebone, were widely reported this week. But it’s not clear that this is really the case.

According to Kneebone, today’s students lack the manual dexterity that’s important for sewing, cutting and stitching. He argues that this is because, instead of taking part in creative subjects that involve working with their hands during their education, “a …