Scientists at the University of Nottingham argue that practicing with a constructor and a mirror can be very beneficial for doctors working with local ultrasound anesthesia.
Ultrasound anesthesia, or ultrasound-guided anesthesia, is used during complex operations, and its essence lies in the very precise introduction of a small dose of anesthetic close to the nerve, while the whole process, as the name implies, is controlled by ultrasound. This procedure requires a high level of precision and skill, and British anesthesiologists have been able to offer a fairly simple yet cheap method to improve the skills of working with ultrasound anesthesia.
All that is needed for such training is a mirror and Lego construction set. These simple objects allow you to work out the interaction with three-dimensional objects and their two-dimensional images. At the same time, doctors and medical students must assemble a three-dimensional model from the parts of the constructor, focusing on the reflection of the sample in the mirror, repeating this exercise until not a single mistake is made.
The developers of the method have already conducted an experiment, having found out that those students who trained with "Lego" and a mirror show better results in working with real ultrasonic anesthesia than those who did not undergo such training.
According to Professor Ferguson, one of the authors of the study, the proposed method allows you to increase the spatial perception and attention necessary in order to clearly understand during work how real organs inside the human body relate to their two-dimensional image on the screen of an ultrasound machine.