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Laser Surgery Goes Online

Posted by samzenpus on from the put-your-eye-in-the-disk-tray dept.

Ignat writes "Scientists in Australia successfully performed a laser surgery in a Southern California laboratory via the Internet. RoboLase, the new technology used showed that realtime surgeries can be performed from distant locations. Scientists from UC Irvine, UC San Diego and the University of Queensland used RoboLase to produce surgical holes in a distinct pattern of less than one micron in diameter (1/1000th of a millimeter) in single cells."

8 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. i cant wait by penguinix · · Score: 5, Funny

    i can't wait for my doctor to be outsourced to India.

    1. Re:i cant wait by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful
      i can't wait for my doctor to be outsourced to India.
      Sarcasm or no, I happen to agree. You hardly ever see the doctor anyways. Analyzing lab results and scans is something that can easily be done remotely.

      Cutting and sewing will probably be the last things outsourced, but you know what? Medical care is currently so expensive that many people in some parts of the world simply go without. Better to take your chances than die for sure.

  2. Bandwidth or Latency by matt21811 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "This was a particularly noteworthy accomplishment, because it demonstrated the amount of computer bandwidth (1 gigabyte/second) needed by the Australia and California research groups to observe and grab a fast-moving sperm with virtually no detectible delay in image transmission between the two laboratories."

    It seems even the people who did this have no idea of the difference between bandwidth and latency. The above quote is from the original press release.

    When I first read the title I thought someone had their lasik done this way, mostly because my wife had her lasik surgery done in Australia (we live there). She wrote about the experience http://www.sharonslasiksurgery.com/ if you want a laypersons point of view.

    Doing it remotely is not something I would volunteer for and I suppose that is exactly where this technology is heading.

  3. Linksys Router by Mean_Nishka · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will this work with my Linksys router?

    --
    www.lonseidman.com

  4. laser surgery via internet and the Snow Crash... by wherrera · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, this means it won't be long before a computer worm can really, directly kill someone ;-/

  5. Future post at bash.org by grolschie · · Score: 4, Funny

    And now I make my first incision
    <nurse> Nice work there Doctor.
    <doctor>.
    <doctor>.
    <doctor> DIE DIE DIE!!!!
    * stab stab stab *
    <nurse> What the hell are you doing!!!!???!!
    <nurse> You've made a freakin' mess. There's bloody all over the theatre!
    <nurse> Somebody help!!!!!!!!
    <doctor> .
    <doctor> Sorry was AFK and my little brother was messing with my pc

  6. it's not "surgery" by cahiha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They poked tiny holes into cells with a laser. Calling that "cell surgery" doesn't make it surgery; it's just operating a scientific instrument remotely over the Internet. People have been doing that for years.

  7. Love the internet for laser eye surgery... by Mr.+Flibble · · Score: 4, Funny

    So the doctor begins adjusting the power of the beam and turns on the laser just as a lag spike hits. The computer continually increaes the laser power... then the delayed UDP message to "fire" the laser arrives...

    The doctor stares bewildered at his monitor as the word HEADSHOT! is returned...

    (Then a remote nurse claims he has an aimbot...)

    --
    Try to hack my 31337 firewall!