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First 5G Remote Surgery Completed In China (ubergizmo.com)
According to local reports, the world's first remote surgery equipment using 5G networks was successfully tested in China. "The test involved a doctor in the southeastern province of Fujian removing the liver of a laboratory test animal at a remote location," reports Ubergizmo. "The doctor performed the surgery by controlling robotic surgical arms over a 5G connection." From the report: The lag time was said to be only 0.1 seconds between the control device of the doctor and the robot in the surgical room. The researchers said that this high speed can reduce the risk of potentially deadly medical mistakes. They hope that 5G enabled remote surgery will soon become reliable enough that it can be used safely on humans as well. This could end up saving countless lives as skilled surgeons will be able to operate on patients in remote locations in a safe manner. The South China Morning Post published a video that shows the doctor performing the surgery.
Here's the thing about "robotic surgery": it's actually really good for a few things, like stuff in the pelvis (prostates, complicated hysterectomies). Anywhere else in the abdomen, it doesn't offer much more than plain laparoscopy does, except cost. I work with surgeons who can have a gallbladder or appendix out laparoscopically before you could even get the robot docked to all the instruments, and it doesn't decrease the number or size of incisions.
Sure, in theory, you can do it remotely. Here's the catch: you still have to have someone on site who can put the trocars in (most surgeons will not let an assistant do this until they have worked with them extensively, as it is one of those things that you can royally fuck up if you don't know what you're doing) and close the incisions afterward. And that assumes that you actually can do the surgery laparoscopically/robotically, which is not a guaranteed thing. We end up performing open operations from time to time once we get in there and see what's going on. Bigger tumor than you thought? You're not going to be able to pull it out through a 12 mm camera port. Someone is going to have to make a bigger incision.
Oh, and I haven't even started the discussion about when things start going badly and you need to act quickly. So: if you have to have a fully-qualified surgeon on site anyway, along with these gigantic, expensive machines, why not just have them do the surgery, and skip the gigantic, expensive machine? It's a neat party trick to say you're doing it remotely, but in practice... it doesn't add much.