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Heart Surgery By Robot
zebidee writes: "I've always been pretty amazed at the advances they continue to make in the field of medical science but this one really does take top prize. The BBC is reporting that the clever boffins at St. Mary's Hospital in London are preparing to use a new robotic arm to carry out heart bypass surgery using the da Vinci system developed by Intuitive Surgical. Read more about on the BBC News page. This really is the 21st century!"
- "Watch me frag this guy!"
- "The MP3 server is skipping again -- can you bump up its realtime priority?"
- "Oh shit! We're getting slashdotted!"
- "That pesky 'ph3ar me Y00 l8m3r' dialog box keeps popping up."
- "Fuck all these warnings, I'm taking '-Wall' out of the Makefile".
- "These Celerons are so great for overclocking."
- "Check it out -- that hot radiologist says she loves me! I better read this e-mail right now!"
- "Yeah, I'm running 2.5.3-pre7-ac12-dontuse. Why do you ask?"
And the #1 thing you don't want to hear in a bot-enhanced operating room:RoboSurgeons, from the Nov/Dec 2000 issue. Complete with pictures and links.
This reminds me the novel by Arthur C. Clarke: Rama; where a robot surgeon cuts the spaceship personnel into peaces because it is not programmed to stop when anything unexpected happens (like the ship bumping into something)...
Donate free food to the hungry at The Hunger site.
Here are a few things I found while reading about this a few months ago. What's interesting is this stuff is already in prototype in China and some other medical institutions. enjoy!
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s ia/china-15-11-00_01.htm
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http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/10/24/robot.heart.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/regionalnews/easta
http://www.abcnews.go.com/local/wabc/oncall/40340
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_69581.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2000/
http://www.office.com/global/0,2724,61-17731,FF.h
http://dross38040.users2.50megs.com/page28.html
Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
Robot Surgery by Heart?
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"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
My girlfriend is a PHD student, and she is currently doing research in medical technology. Recently she's had a demonstration of this device. After that demonstration, they were allowed to handle the machine and try some manipulations.
From what I understood:
1. This is not an intelligent robot, but a tool for the surgeon. Sensors are connected to the surgeons hands and arms, and they are transmitted to the operational device. It still is the surgeon which does the operation.
2. Resistance, which I saw mentioned in one of the other responses, is simulated to the surgeon doing the operation. Thus, a more 'natural' feel is created.
3. This device and devices like it are great tools for Minimal Invasive Surgery (MIS). Because the opening doesn't have to be large at all, and devices can be sterilized, this greatly reduces the risk of infection.
4. If developments continue along this line, and there is no reason to believe they won't, operation rooms may become obsolete for many operations: a closed sterile device is pressed against the area where the opening has to come. All that has to be sterile is the insides of the operation device.
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the pun is mightier than the sword