Slashdot Mirror
Surgical Robot Removes Calgary Woman's Brain Tumor
Raver32 points out an article in the Victoria Times Colonist about an interesting advance in robotic surgery: "Calgary doctors have made surgical history, using a robot to remove a brain tumor from a 21-year-old woman. Doctors used remote controls and an imaging screen, similar to a video game, to guide the two-armed robot through Paige Nickason's brain during the nine-hour surgery Monday. Surgical instruments acting as the hands of the robot — called NeuroArm — provided surgeons with the tools needed to successfully remove the egg-shaped tumor."
You can find some more info on this at.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/may2008/neuroArm
I think it will be interesting if a doctor can have less fatigue and sit in a chair and do operations more quickly and more precisely with this.
I understand that there are some operations where you would want the doctor to be on site to help with complications. But some of them like removing a brain tumor where its a procedure that you just need to cut something out it might be able to help the limited supply of doctors in the world be better utilized.
This is great and all, but I feel the term "robot" is overly misused. To me, robot implies a computerized autonomy. If the doctor controlled the thing, then to me that's no robot.
Soon we can be on a honda assembly line
The Soviets did this for eye surgery decades ago. They would have patients on a carousel with surgeons each applying one step of the surgery. Then the entire patient carousel would shift with the next surgeons applying their one step to the next patient.
You need to pay for health insurance in Alberta, and my health care is subsidized, so i do not in fact, pay for my health care.
Actually, waiting lists for surgery are as long in the USA as they are in Canada.