I worked in the early stages of this project as a post-doc with Prof. Suvranu De at RPI (video from Reuters):
Related papers:
[bib] [pdf] [doi] MACIEL, A.; HALIC, T.; LU, Z.; NEDEL, L. P.; DE, S. Using the PhysX engine for Physics-based Virtual Surgery with Force Feedback. In International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 341-353, September, 2009. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [bib][pdf][doi] MACIEL, A.; LIU, Y.; AHN, W.; SINGH, T. P.; DUNNICAN, W.; DE, S. Development of the VBLaST(TM): A Virtual Basic Laparoscopic Skill Trainer. International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 131-138, June, 2008. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [bib][pdf] MACIEL, A.; LIU, Y; AHN, W; SINGH, T. P.; DUNNICAN, W.; DE, S. Towards a Virtual Basic Laparoscopic Skill Trainer (VBLaST). In: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics: Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 16 - parallel, combinatorial, convergent: NextMed by Design. 2008; 132: 275-280. Westwood, J.D., et al. (eds.). IOS Press, Amsterdam (2008). [bib] [pdf] [doi] MACIEL, A.; DE, S. A New Line-based Algorithm for Real Time Haptic Interactions with Virtual Environments. In Proceedings of the 16th Symposium on Haptic interfaces For Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (Haptics'08). (March 13 - 14, 2008). HAPTICS'08. p. 217-223. IEEE Computer Society, Reno, NV.