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Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:02 pm
by Tsukiyumi
A robotic surgeon at Duke University has successfully found and guided a needle to a sliver of steel shrapnel, completely without human help. The technology could reduce the cost and time necessary to complete a biopsy and other surgical operations.

"Eventually you could have a ten-dollar biopsy done inside in a supermarket," said Steve Smith, a doctor at Duke University and co-author of a paper describing the work in the journal IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

"Today that same biopsy would cost about $1,000," said Smith.

Locating a piece of shrapnel is only the latest demonstration of the autonomous robotic surgeon. Over the last two years, the team at Duke, including recent graduate A.J. Rogers, successfully performed two other tasks.

The first was locating a needle with 3-D ultrasound, and then touching that needle with another needle.

The second successful task for the robot surgeon was to locate, and then biopsy, a tumor inside a turkey breast.

About six months ago, the scientists upgraded their robot. The new robot, with six articulating joints and about the size of a suitcase, was tasked with finding a piece of steel shrapnel two millimeters by less than one millimeter submerged inside a water bath.

The new robot made it easier to find the shrapnel. The size of the shrapnel made it more difficult than the first two tasks; it was so small that it didn't appear on the ultrasound. To make it larger, the Duke scientists used a high-powered magnetic field to vibrate the sliver. All that was left was for the needle to reach out and touch the tiny metal piece.

"We keep giving the robot more and more complex tasks," said Smith. "So far the robot has been able to accomplish these tasks automatically."

Each task took an average of three minutes for the ultrasound to image, the computer to map and the needle to touch the object. Using a modern ultrasound machine (the Duke researchers use one more than ten years old) and a more powerful laptop would speed the process up to about a minute. That's roughly the same amount of time that it would take a human surgeon to complete the same procedure.

Where the time and money savings would come is taking out the human middle man. For example, human operators would have to perform a mammogram and send the results to a radiologist, who reads the image. The patient would then have a biopsy. The entire process can take a week or more. Optimized, robotic biopsies could cut that time down to hours.

Independent robot surgeons could be used for other medical procedures as well, said Smith. Using the needle, the robot could apply local anesthetics. The needle could also be replaced with a number of different tools developed for minimally invasive surgery, clearing the way for a variety of medical procedures.

"There is no limit to the way this technology could be used as long as the artificial intelligence progresses to the point where it would avoid blood vessels or nerves," said Smith. "But right now this is an early stage feasibility study."

Other doctors concur. "The robotics are certainly getting more reliable," said Paul Carson, a professor of radiology at the University of Michigan. "And when you combine that with detailed imaging of the needle and its path, this is an eminently approachable technique."

Both Carson and Smith agree that it will take about ten years for fully automated robotic surgery to become a reality. Like most medical technology, it will likely be more expensive than using a human surgeon, but eventually the cost-saving -- and life-saving -- technology will become widely available.
Source

I can't wait, personally. This is the kind of tech advancement I like seeing.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:05 pm
by Monroe
I agree. Though I do wonder what Surgeons will be doing now.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:07 pm
by Tsukiyumi
Monroe wrote:...I do wonder what Surgeons will be doing now.
Knitting.

Seriously, I doubt the human element will disappear from medicine for a long time.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:20 pm
by Mikey
It said "eventually." It's going to be a LONG time before the volume and ubiquity of these things makes up for the cost of developing them.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:28 pm
by Sionnach Glic
That's awesome.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:54 am
by Lighthawk
Awesome...and frightening. The day will come when we have robots doing everything and then...Wall-E

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:30 am
by stitch626
I can't see that robots will eventually replace surgeons. There are so many factors that change during surgery that a program will not be able to adapt if something goes wrong.

That said, they could easily replace minor surgery in the near future.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:44 am
by Sonic Glitch
Lighthawk wrote:Awesome...and frightening. The day will come when we have robots doing everything and then...Wall-E
OR:

The Cylons were created by man... They were created to make life easier on the Planet Earth.... etc. etc. etc.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 8:44 pm
by Lighthawk
me,myself and I wrote:
Lighthawk wrote:Awesome...and frightening. The day will come when we have robots doing everything and then...Wall-E
OR:

The Cylons were created by man... They were created to make life easier on the Planet Earth.... etc. etc. etc.
I'm not sure what would be worse...for us to all become fat, stupid, and lazy as robots do all our work for us, or for our creations to try and kill us all.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:29 am
by RK_Striker_JK_5
The creations to kill us all would be worse. At least as fat and lazy, there's a chance we could get better. Dead is... dead.

Interesting. I doubt a ten dollar biopsy in the supermarket's possible, but still... The potential is vast for this.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 7:48 pm
by Lighthawk
RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:The creations to kill us all would be worse. At least as fat and lazy, there's a chance we could get better. Dead is... dead.

Interesting. I doubt a ten dollar biopsy in the supermarket's possible, but still... The potential is vast for this.
You're assuming we'd lose though. It could be that we win and end up better for the experience even if it is terrible. We learn not to rely blindly on technology. I see being reduced to a state of general mental and physical sloth as much harder to recover from, because most people probably wouldn't even see the problem.

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:25 pm
by Sonic Glitch
Lighthawk wrote:
RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:The creations to kill us all would be worse. At least as fat and lazy, there's a chance we could get better. Dead is... dead.

Interesting. I doubt a ten dollar biopsy in the supermarket's possible, but still... The potential is vast for this.
You're assuming we'd lose though. It could be that we win and end up better for the experience even if it is terrible. We learn not to rely blindly on technology. I see being reduced to a state of general mental and physical sloth as much harder to recover from, because most people probably wouldn't even see the problem.
That's where I stand as well. I think our odds of surviving nuclear holocaust are slightly better than a life being fat and lazy. That and we'd learn to break the cycle of violence of course! :lol:

Re: Robotic Surgeon Succeeds

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:09 pm
by Mikey
Please don't underestimate humankind's inability to learn.