The importance of touch when training surgeons.

Virtual reality (VR) is playing a greater role in medical education. Now, it is being paired with haptic gloves, to promote the critical role of touch in training new surgeons.

Surgeons from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, perform hand surgery to regain function of a finger on a patient at Hospital Escuela in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 17. The medical team, with members from Brooke Army Medical Center; Walter Reed Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; and Ft. Riley, Kan., deployed Sept. 8 for the two week medical readiness training exercise. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. John Asselin)