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Robot Stitches Tissue By Itself Without A Real Doctor Pulling The Strings (seattletimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have created a robotic system that is capable of stitching up tissue in living animals without a human doctor pulling the strings. Wednesday's research brings us one step closer toward autonomous surgical robots. While doctors did supervise the robot, the robot performed as well, and in some cases a bit better, as some competing surgeons in stitching together intestinal tissue of pigs used in the tests. Wednesday's project is "the first baby step toward true autonomy," said Dr. Umamaheswar Duvvuri of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He cautioned others to not expect to see doctors leave entire operations in a robot's digital hands -- yet. The tissue-stitching robot is designed to do one specific tasks, similar to machines in other industries. For example, robot arms do the welding and painting in most U.S. car assembly lines. The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) system is equipped with suturing equipment plus smart imaging technologies to let it track moving tissue in 3D and with an equivalent of night vision. Sensors have been added to help guide each stitch and tell how tightly to pull. All the surgeons have to do is place fluorescent markers on the tissue that needs stitching, and the robot takes aim. Human studies should begin within the next few years. The STAR system is just one of many up and coming robots to put surgery into the hands of non-surgeons.
When Skynet goes live this isn't going to be good.
just wonderful, first going to the battlefield so we can up our game attacking people who didn't attack us.
What doctors can't be assed to stitch up a wound anymore either? Research dollars well spent.
if your hospital is infected by a virus. And medical computer security is almost non-existent.
I thought that sewing machines had been doing this ever since they were invented!
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
So this was perfectly possible before, as long as the was a doctor there putting tension on the strings? WTF does this mean? Could we avoid trying to spice things up with shitty puns in light of making thins clearer?
A friend of mine had a child with a Cesarean. She was sewed up by two people afterwards — an experienced doctor on one side and a young "resident" on the other.
The resident's side remained painful for two weeks longer than the experienced doctor's side. If a robot can do these things in the near future, it would be welcome progress indeed. We are very short on doctors.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Now surgeons won't necessarily need the steadiest of hands nor do they need to retire early in life. Good surgeons are more than steady hands.
It should also allow all surgeons to do more delicate surgery.
Makes a lot of sense. I'm surprised someone didn't think about this 10 years ago.
Computers aren't getting that much faster even with multiple cores. So there is no reason to believe that a lot of tech 50 years from now couldn't be invented now.
We have the tools and ability; we just have to imagine how to use it.
There are medical instruments that have done this for decades: http://medicalstapler.com/circular-stapler.html
Used hundreds of thousands of times a year.
ObamaCare does.
Dateline 2030
750K student loan from med school and no jobs. And all the mc jobs in 50 miles of me don't want some with a masters much less an MD.
What to do?
nt
We have such a great track record with the software running normal desktop computers, and we insist we use the same extremely malware-sensitive utter crap for machines doing medical things to people. They don't work too well even when a medico is watching. Now we want to make them fully autonomous? No thanks.
I think I do prefer a human in the loop somewhere. At least we know how to deal with blame on humans.
Well, now, the third-most likely way to die is at the hands of a medical "professional". Just page them: Dr. Kevorkian.
seriously, when there is an alien about to burst out of you, do you really want to wait to get to a human surgeon?
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
We'll be there when the robot starts making racist remarks about not understanding why anyone would want to be made of meat. "Oh, I'm sorry, meatbag, did that hurt? I'd sympathize, but we robots are incapable of feeling pain! Plus I'm not programmed for sympathy!"
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Cut up a stomach, pull out a xenomorph then stable the stomach shut. Then we'll talk.
not impressed until it can do an anal probe as well.
Is this supposed to be some kind of achievement? Suturing isn't hard - even medical students can do it :)
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
... Windows 10 tries to update mid surgery
... and are nothing like humans at all. They don't have brains, don't think, don't fear, don't suffer, and you can do anything you want to them. After all, they can't TALK, so it's okay to torture them. Just like it's okay to torture unborn babies, because they can't talk, and can't vote, either.
Why didn't they test this on a human volunteer, who was having an operation anyway?
Drone number two, report to sick bay.
xkcd has the flow chart for this https://xkcd.com/1619/