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Telerobotic Surgery A Reality

Posted by timothy on from the old-hat-new-brain dept.

Moby Cock writes "Aquanauts on board NASA's NEEMO7 have successfully completed simulated gall bladder surgery with 'coaching' from a surgeon half a continent away. The story is covered at space.com and the Globe and Mail. The project is aimed at studying the feasiblity of dealing with medical emergencies in space on the ISS. "We have learned that it is possible, and quite safe, to telementor an untrained person through a complex medical task," said Dr. Mehran Anvari, one of the principal investigators from the McMaster University Centre for Minimal Access Surgery."

22 comments

  1. Quite safe you say? by crstophr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fine, YOU go first.

    1. Re:Quite safe you say? by secretsquirel · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that there arte PLENTY of people who would love to go first. Say you live in a small town in some 3rd world country. When your choices of treatment are a "quite safe" tele-surgery or your local witchdoctor you might have a different perspective on things. So how long till I'm getting spam saying I can grow 8 inches over then phone?

  2. Ripple effect... by mintrepublic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This could have some interesting effects eventually on the medical industry at large. The military could use this kind of thing to lower their need for medical personnel, or especially long space flights.

    1. Re:Ripple effect... by modest+apricot · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Very true, yet another piece of technology that has wondeful applications in our not-so-distant future. However, knowing the miltiary and NASA, this will never replace a good old doctor if anything for sheer redundancy.

      I atteneded a few lectures on possible plans for a mission to the moon/mars/beyond, and a former astronaut said one of the most important qualities they were looking for in astronaut applications was medical ability. NASA would never consider a mission to anywhere distant without a competent surgeon or the like on board.

    2. Re:Ripple effect... by baywulf · · Score: 1, Funny

      And given enough time and refinements, we can outsource surgeons also.

    3. Re:Ripple effect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, this is not funny. It is completely true. What better way for the USA to get its spiralling health care costs under control than to have indian and chinese surgeons perform surgery from halfway around the world. For one tenth the pay. With no need for insurance because they are outside the US and cannot be sued under US malpractice laws. If anyone thinks their job is immune to offshoring they should think again.

    4. Re:Ripple effect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can see it now, a surgeon in India links up to a hospital near you and begins surgery. Half way though the surgeon is heard yelling... "OMG LAG! WTF THIS SERVR IS SOOOOO LAGGY!"
      Just hope you don't hear "headshot!"

    5. Re:Ripple effect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the long space flight was to a destination far away (say, Mars), the speed-of-light lag might present a problem.
      Even teleoperating between the Earth and the Moon would present problems.
      However, this might be OK for the ISS, etc.

  3. In other news - Mars Landing now a Reality! by bergeron76 · · Score: 1, Funny

    A simulation was completed successfully today.

    --
    Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
    1. Re:In other news - Mars Landing now a Reality! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Supercomputers at MIT have successfully simulated global weather, a mars landing, and a biodome and minerals refinery system on the moon. Researchers say they are waiting for the new processor due out next year so they can simulate Bush admitting that he makes mistakes. According to the researchers, simulating something that incredible and improbable requires more processing power than they currently have.

  4. Quite safe... by skinfitz · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...until you forget to pay the phone bill.

  5. woohoo! by austad · · Score: 1

    Breast implants for flat martian women. Awesome.

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  6. Malpractice? by Spykk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder who is responsible for a botched surgery, the untrained proxy or the doctor on the other end of the line?

    1. Re:Malpractice? by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 1

      I wonder who is responsible for a botched surgery, the untrained proxy or the doctor on the other end of the line?

      Simple.

      Anything goes wrong, blame it on lag.

      Or claim it's due to the patient being a 'ch34tign h4x0r c4mp1ng l4m3r', or whatever. :-)

      --
      Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
  7. HaHa! by kawaichan · · Score: 1

    Just wait like ten more years and all the doctors will bitch about how their jobs got outsourced to india and china

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    kawai
  8. "reality" != "simulation" by museumpeace · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the feat reported is certainly valid news and the techniques of remote control surgery will have application beyond medical emergencies in space
    BUT PLEASE: saying something is a reality when it has only been simulated is misleading! How much would you pay the doctor who says "I have simulated removal of your tumor"? Reality is billable.

    --
    SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
  9. Been done already by Rufus88 · · Score: 1

    This is really really old news. And I'm not talking about a simulation either. Check out this page and scroll down to September 20, 2001. Here's another link.

  10. NASA? NOAA? by Computerguy5 · · Score: 1
    According to the NEEMO site, NEEMO is the name of the mission, while the aquanauts are on board the NOAA Aquarius Underwater Laboratory. To say that these people are aboard a mission is a bit... well... odd.

    I don't bring it up to be a grammar nazi. I bring it up because I was rather confused for a moment, and others might be as well.

  11. Golly... by CodeWanker · · Score: 1

    When he said "The Blue Screen of Death" he REALLY meant it.

    --


    "Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
  12. Who would use this if they have a choice? by dtolman · · Score: 1

    One network outage and the patient could be toast. Unless they can guarentee 99.99999% reliability, I can't imagine they will EVER use this, unless it is for places where they have no choice (space, antarctica, etc)

  13. This isn't news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fucking saw that shit on Beyond 2000 in the 80s. If this is news so is the fall of the Berlin Wall.