Medical robots are highly talented machines. They can help diagnose diseases by working inside a patient's body. They can mix up the right compounds for chemotherapy, and they can serve as remote avatars for patients' relatives and doctors. Some of them are helping paralyzed people walk. Others are teaching stroke victims to move their arms and legs again.
Other medical robots are helping surgeons perform a wide variety of tasks, from brain surgery and heart surgery to less invasive procedures such as knee resurfacing.
Click on the image below to see 11 robots making breakthroughs in the medical industry.
MAKO Surgical's RIO Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic System is designed to help surgeons during knee resurfacing, a minimally invasive but difficult operation done before placing implants, an alternative to more extensive and invasive total knee replacement. Knee resurfacing retains healthy bone and tissue, preserves the ligaments, and speeds recovery time. The RIO Robotic Arm provides real-time, interoperative visual, tactile, and auditory feedback, fostering more precise positioning of implants. (Source: MAKO Surgical)
Ann, yes you are right. Now a day's in super specialty hospitals robots are using in surgical rooms for assisting doctors for carrying out surgery and pre-post operative procedures. But one thing we have to remember is all the operations of such robotics are pre programmed one and they have no logical or analytical thinking like human brains.
Ann, you are right. As of now robots are assisting the surgeons and nurses for carrying out certain task in surgical room and they won't capable to handle any task independently. But no doubt, in future they can with little bit of analytical and fuzzy logic.
What robotics has done for the medical industry in unprecedented. When I saw a medical robot alter someone's eye to correct the vision without human interaction, I was blow away. And that was almost 8 years ago. The da'vinci robot is another example, aiding doctors to be more precise and controlled. Shakey hands are a worry of the past. Watch some of the da'vinvi robot videos on youtube, and you will agree. More robots are needed.
I have really mixed feelings about independent robotic surgeons. The creepy/scary factor is pretty high (maybe we've all watched too many horror movies...). But I think Cabe and Mydesign are right.
Ann, as of now robotic assisted procedures are widely accepted in most of the super specialty hospitals. But when it comes for a fully robotic done procedure without a human (Doctor) intervention, peoples may get little bit sacred about it (mindset). Eventhough error chances are less in procedure done by robotics; people always have a fear to opt for that.
A few months ago, my wife had internal surgery with the surgeon using the da Vinci Surgical System. Instead of one week in the hospital to recover, she was out in one day...in fact she was in no post-op pain by the time she left the hospital.
Of course when the doctor told us in advance that the da Vinci Surgical System would be used, we investigated. The cost of the machine is about $1.5 million each, and made in California.
Read and watch the videos to find out more about the robotic surgical system.
da Vinci Surgical System website: http://www.mivipdavinci.com/da-vinci-si-surgical-system.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=da-vinci-surgical-system-phrase&utm_campaign=mivip-da-vinci-los-angeles-ca-gst&_vsrefdom=p.3499
Rick, thanks for sharing your wife's experience. We keep hearing that robotic-assisted surgery helps speed accuracy and healing--DN has covered the daVinci system several times--but it's hard to know how much of that's hype or reality.
Tools, tools, tools. The use of robots, using highly engineered and very small tools, allow the surgeon to do his work with very tiny incisions. They are not meant (at least in the current iterations) to replace the human doctor, the human thinker, or the human controller. What these surgical robots do best is work very precisely in a very confined space. Even the most skilled surgeon is limited by the size of his hands and fingers.
GTOlover, I totally agree. There's a place for humans and a place for robots, and I'm not at all sure the twain should ever meet when it comes to surgical procedures.
Ann, the idea of robots operating on one is somewhat creepy. On the other hand, they can be very consistent and accurate. If you have a good surgeon who makes you feel comfortable, then it is nice. This is not always the case, though.
It looks like we are moving toward the medibots from Star Wars. That will be interesting.
Lou, I'm with you--the idea of autonomous robots operating on oneself is very creepy indeed. Personally, I'm glad we're not yet at the stage of the Star Wars medibots.
The unsettling thought comes when you want to ask your surgeon what operating system the robot uses, but then you decline to ask, realizing you really don't want to know.
The da Vinci Surgical System fits into the category of machines featured in the slideshow, and has numerous advantages over conventional surgery.
Morris, what a terrifying thought--but it also gave me a laugh. Let's hope it's not Windows... We've written about the da Vinci system several times on the DN site, including our earlier medical robot slideshow: http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=240513
The exoskeleton is an idea whose time has come. Although the one pictured here weighs 84 lbs, I could imagine it weighing one-fourth of that in ten years.
It is interesting to see the comments here & to see just how far we've come in developing robotic medical assistants.
Farm (http://www.farmpd.com) has worked on a few of the technologies highlighted here (Mako Surgical & Corindus)! These technolgies are improving patient outcomes by reducing procedure time while increasing surgical accuracy and precision. We attribute these developments to an increased awareness and focus on human factors engineering and usability!
Marketing@Farm, thanks for the input from people working to productize some of this amazing technology and develop it further. Your company's work on the MAKO robotic arm looks especially interesting.
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