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Robots in Medicine
eberry writes "The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center will use a robot to mix intravenous medications and prepare its syringes. The robot, about the size of three refrigerators strapped together, can fill 300 syringes an hour, each with a custom dose and a bar-code label routing it to a particular patient. The robot should reduce the potential for errors and improve patient safety. The robot still needs further approval by the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy, but that should come within a month. It should be noted that five Cincinnati hospitals already use computerized pill-dispensing systems." On the other hand, reader Bobbert sends in a cautionary note: "'A group of German patients has filed a lawsuit against financially beleaguered Integrated Surgical Systems Inc., alleging that the Davis company' Robodoc surgical robot is defective and dangerous, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.' So now with robotic surgery, both the doctor and the robot can liable for damages. Next thing you know, telecoms will be liable for medical malpractice if the network connections fail during remote robotic surgery."
The governments of Vancover, Canada and Amsterdam, Netherlands have placed orders of 10 of these machines each presumably to placed on street corners.
All you need is a hacker with a sense of humor and that circumcison can turn into a sex change.
I'm sorry, your question does not compute. Shall we play a game of chess?
-- (Score:i , Imaginary)
Boop...
Boop...
Brrz!
"Benzadrine. Price check on Benzadrine."
*shudders*
Meta will eat itself
I hope the PunkBuster folks are hard at work on an update, or I see nothing but problems ahead for this technology.
blue screen of death
Well, I hope it's not for internal use. Can you imagine that thing crawing up your colon?
Oddly, I think some of you could. :-)
Aw, man, here comes another Troll/Offtopic mod. :(
--- Ban humanity.
Who better than to defend the robot surgeon than the RoboMouth 3000, the finest robot lawyer in production today? Why, the RoboMouth 3000 can file motions 63.7 times faster than the fastest human lawyer, and can should "Objection!" at 135db before opposing counsel finishes the offending remark!
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Kinda frightening isn't it? For comparison:
Robot Bartender. Error = client is drunk.
Robot Pharmacist. Error = client is dead.
-- (Score:i , Imaginary)
This is a deliberate setup.
They eat old people's medicine for fuel. And when they grab you in their metal claws, you can't escape because they're made of metal.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
The electron ram stabbed out another searing blaze of light and took
out the appendix.
"How do you think I feel?" said Marvin bitterly.
"Just ran off and left you, did they?" the machine thundered.
"Yes," said Marvin.
"I think I'll shoot down their bloody ceiling as well!" raged the tank.
It took out the ceiling of the theatre.
"That's very impressive," murmured Marvin.
"You ain't seeing nothing yet," promised the machine, "I can take out
this floor too, no trouble!"
It took out the floor, too.
"Hell's bells!" the machine roared as it plummeted fifteen storeys and
smashed itself to bits on the ground below.
"What a depressingly stupid machine," said Marvin and trudged away.
(with apologies to Douglas...)
No, see, that's Germany. Only in Soviet Russia did patents sue you.
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I Hit the Karma Cap, and All I Got Was This Lousy
So now with robotic surgery, both the doctor and the robot can liable for damages. Next thing you know, telecoms will be liable for medical malpractice if the network connections fail during remote robotic surgery.
Yes, and that's as it should be: if you bring a product or service to market and it causes harm because it doesn't work as promised, you should be responsible for the damages.
So, if your robot causes unnecessary harm to patients or if your high-availability comlink goes down too much, then you should have to pay.