Robots in Hospitals

Dieppe writes "Robot couriers are being used in hospitals CNN. The robots are being used as delivery 'bots to deliver medicine and other hospital supplies. They are polite, and even can be overly cautious. I wonder if at night they supply them with saws, arms and other cutting devices and let them at each other? Turns out they're cost effective as well!"

Comments

And...?

[ResidntGeek]

Robots are also being used in delicate surgeries, to ease hand tremors by the surgeon. They use various methods of control, but the basic idea is the doctor is in a different room and the robot in the operating room, weilding the scalpel, clamps, camera, etc.

Re:And...?

[stratjakt]

Not only that, but it can magnify the image, and reduce the doctors movements.

That is, the doctor can do virtual surgery on a heart thats blown up to appear to him to be six feet across. He removes/cuts/does whatever to a managable six inch chunk of it, and the robot replicates that on the real heart, in sub-millimeter fashion.

Pretty cool stuff. Still very much in development though, but there have been some early trials.

Re:And...?

[CFBMoo1]

Here's a link to my old colleges CS department. They have surgical simulators with force feedback in the works when I was graduating. I did some minor work on the lumbar puncture simulator for a final semester project. Was really fun stuff.

Millersville University's Research in Haptics and Surgical Simulation

RoboDoc

[yanestra]

In Germany, an US product called RoboDoc was working for several years doing pre-programmed hip joint operations. Several hundreds of victims are now preparing to sue the hospitals - the ensanguined operations have led to severe destructions in nerves, muscles and bones.

Technology in hospitals

[DoctorDeath]

My mother (an RN) was recently complaining about the hospital she works in going to using computers in place of paper to do all the patient reports. She had a fit when I told her the local hospitals are using laptops and scanners in every room and medicines are kept lockedup until the nurse scans the patient ID. After the computer verifies the patient it then unlocks the proper drawer so the nurse can get the proper medicine. Now this comes along and she will end up in a nut house for sure.