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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.
just wonderful, first going to the battlefield so we can up our game attacking people who didn't attack us.
I thought that sewing machines had been doing this ever since they were invented!
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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.
Why would the stitching robot have access to the internet?
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?
Well, there would be no direct access of course, but it certainly would be connected to the LAN. Then you can maybe upload data about how to conduct the operation from a nearby computer, or the robot wants to export a protocol file of how and where it did its stitches and add that to the patient's file. Especially interesting for insurances when there is the suspicion that something went wrong during the operation.
You can think of many different things here, and when our current time we live in shows one thing, than its that we are so great at finding reasons why to connect stuff to the internet that doesn't need any connection at all.
Why would an IV machine?
It offers lots of little conveniences, and wouldn't be too much of a problem if the software was written to be properly paranoid about security.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
but it certainly would be connected to the LAN.
Why?
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?
You evidently don't know that medical errors are the THIRD leading cause of death in the US. How much of that do you think is attributable to computer security? Yeah, not much.
I would gladly go under the knife of a tested, proven robotic surgeon for most routine procedures when the time is right. A robot can integrate my vitals, look at the surgical area from n different angles, see in infrared, reference a thousand prior cases and on and on. It's a cute but defenseless argument that some computer worm is going to result in patients getting slashed to bits by a virus infecting a surgical machine.
The main holdup for robotic surgery? The AMA which will look after its own.
CommentBot 0.7a running with args "-module irritate,disagree -target random"
Why in the world are engineers wasting money on developing these "automobiles"? They are slower than horses and can't carry as much weight as locomotives. It seems like the 19th century man can no longer be bothered to spend the time to properly saddle up a horse. What a waste of time and effort.
Why would the stitching robot have access to the internet?
Because people are stupid.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
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.
Most of them. Doctors have 'moved on'. If you're in a small rural town you may still get a doctor that does everything but you should be getting stitched up by an RN, PA or other medical professional with more hands on training in that area.
You don't send a PhD CS candidate to be a code monkey, you don't send an MD to do trivial work.