Virtual surgery for vascular training

Today's health professionals are facing a crisis in training needs: on one hand, the working hours of junior doctors and experience at the operating table are being reduced; on the other, patients are growing ever more critical and litigious. VR simulators may be able to provide a solution, but whilst hardware costs have fallen in recent years, they are still expensive when compared to conventional methods and few have been adopted. The challenge for researchers has been to create realistic, but affordable, surgical interfaces and to provide convincing assessments of the resulting systems...

[Full abstract and other links here.]

But why do we really bother, as I've genuinely been asked?

The answer lies in the way that controlled tests and sessions can be repeated and practiced, which is impossible with animal tissue or human cadavers. As an example, consider the feedback which virtual tools can present the user with in this screenshot:
This clearly shows the variation in entry and exit planes, alongside movement of the (3/8 circular) needle centres. Given such feedback, a student can repeatedly practice until a certain movement and suture pattern is perfected and a precise score can be accredited.