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Surgical Robots Cut Training Time Down From 80 Sessions To 30 Minutes (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the marching-forward dept.

From a report: It is the most exacting of surgical skills: tying a knot deep inside a patient's abdomen, pivoting long graspers through keyhole incisions with no direct view of the thread. Trainee surgeons typically require 60 to 80 hours of practice, but in a mock-up operating theatre outside Cambridge, a non-medic with just a few hours of experience is expertly wielding a hook-shaped needle -- in this case stitching a square of pink sponge rather than an artery or appendix.

The feat is performed with the assistance of Versius, the world's smallest surgical robot, which could be used in NHS operating theatres for the first time later this year if approved for clinical use. Versius is one of a handful of advanced surgical robots that are predicted to transform the way operations are performed by allowing tens or hundreds of thousands more surgeries each year to be carried out as keyhole procedures. The Versius robot cuts down the time required to learn to tie a surgical knot from more than 100 training sessions, when using traditional manual tools, to just half an hour, according to Slack.

4 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. GOOD! by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As someone who needs surgery in the deranged health care system in Quebec, anything that can remove these arrogant human doctors from the loop and make surgery perhaps a nurse-practitioner thing is GOOD.

    I've had it with the arrogant ignorant incompetent condescending doctors that fill the system here and anything that can threaten their hegemony is GOOD.

    Bring on the AI diagnosis, remote-viewed autosurgery please.

    Anything to kick these complacent doctor's asses!

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
    1. Re:GOOD! by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There's a difference between how the system is organized, and what the doctors are like. Quebec seems to like copying the French as much as possible. We use the Civil Code, unlike the rest of Canada, our "national" library is FILLED with books from France. Utterly useless books like how to buy a house.... in France. Not useful in Quebec, but it's in French so...

      For some reason, French doctors from France seem to flock here. Why they can't move their cheese-eating asses back under the Eiffel tower, I don't know.

      Now if you want to be condescended to, infantilized, and generally treated like a subhuman, choose a French doctor. They expect you to come in on all fours, acknowledge their superior standing in life, avoid eye contact, and beg them to listen.

      If you make the mistake of having done your own research, that's it: it's over. They will repeat the SAME script, in a grating French accent "you hanven't done your medical studies, you must not go on the internet".

      I had the SAME spiel VERBATIM from two French cocksucking motherfucking medical assassins. It's like it's drilled in them at school. So much for "égalité", huh you sweaty condescending Gitanes-smoking brown-toothed lab-coated thugs.

      Not that local doctors are any better.

      So ANYTHING that can knock these arrogant motherfuckers down a peg or twelve is welcome!

      --
      Mostly random stuff.
  2. Re:60 more hours to learn that stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My point is that it doesn't take anything like 60 hours of training to learn how to tie a knot blindfolded. Surgical "robots" (really, they are just manipulator arms, or waldoes) make surgery a lot more expensive, but they really don't offer much. Standard laparoscopy is much faster and just as good for the vast majority of procedures. There are some cases where the extra expense might be justified (prostatectomies come to mind here), but usually? No. It's all about billing. Example: hysterectomies are a pretty common procedure. Unless you have abnormal anatomy, you can have your uterus removed through your vagina. Zero visible incisions, and it's a quick procedure. But it doesn't pay at all - the surgeon can get more money for doing it laparoscopically and leaving you with scars (and usually taking longer to do it). It also costs the hospital more money in supplies (and they don't get paid extra for that).

    FYI: It is about billing--however, it's about billing insurance, which often doesn't believe in whatever newfangled surgical technique--it doesn't matter to them if it's better in every single possible way, change scares them so very much that they refuse to, and health care providers generally won't even bother mentioning a procedure your insurance won't cover.

    So, if you're trying to find, for example, a surgeon who'll do a transvaginal hysterectomy? Either already know your insurance will cover it (have proof here!), or be open that you will pay for it yourself if necessary.

  3. Re:Professional "training" is all show by oic0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ive had pretty good luck with doctors listening to me and running the tests I ask for. The trick is to ask leading questions that gets them to come to the conclusion you want instead of just telling them how it is. That only works if its within their knowledge range though. Most doctors stick to what they know and try to fit everything into that box. You need someone passionate about their job that expands their knowledge so its at least a big box.