Tele-Surgery

Tele-surgery is an extensive use of computer-controlled robotics in operation rooms. This technology uses robot arms controlled by a surgeon to perform a surgical intervention. First, the robotic arm projects a greatly enlarged three-dimensional view of the patient’s interior to guide the surgeon through the organs. Second, the robotic arms mimic the surgeon’s movement, filtering out any tremors. This technique allows surgeons to perform minimal invasive surgical techniques which reduce the patient’s hospital stay and the risk of infection, among other advantages. Also, this creates a less stressful and tiring environment for the surgeon, resulting in more accuracy due to the machine’s high performance ability.

Tele-surgery is performing the same robotics operations as described previously, but from a distance. This extended use of robotics has numerous advantages as it will allow surgeries to be performed in isolated rural areas by a qualified professional, such individuals not having access to all the expert help available in cities. Also, surgeons will be able to work for numerous hospitals, their expertise being used where it is most needed. Furthermore, this could be extended to cross-border assistance, for example an American surgeon could perform a life-saving intervention on a wounded soldier in Iraq, from his office, in between two consultations.
Tele-surgery will also help spread the knowledge since experts are assisted by on-site trainees who will gain experience and learn from the expert while supervising the intervention. The trainee feels the expert’s movement, like an invisible hand guiding his, through the mechanic arms controlled from distance.

The challenge however is that as the distance increases, so does the lag time between the surgeon’s hand motions and the robotic arm’s actions which can be located at opposite sides of the globe. Also, the network communication infrastructures must be 100% reliable. In recent years, this second challenge has been eliminated by the use of fibre-optic to assure safe transmission of data.

Another consideration is the cost of such intervention. The financing required to acquire this new technology is sizeable. However, one must keep in mind that costs of travel are eliminated as the patient does not need to be transported to the expert, or vice-versa. Also, as medical robotics becomes more widely used, competitor products to the original Da Vinci robot will enter the market, offering variations in use and lowering price as it will become a commodity, rather than a highly priced innovative luxury.

In conclusion, robot-assisted operating room is modifying the way hospitals are run today, as well as the education of surgery. One must keep in mind that a surgeon performing an operation from home is still working, while training his colleagues at the hospital at the same time, and he should be remunerated for his work. This implies that hospital management must re-think their staffing procedures and compensations.


References:
-technologyreview.com, "RoboSurgeons" by Steve Ditlea, available at http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/12200/
-pbs.org, "Remote Surgery" by Sharon Kay, available at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/innovation/episode7_essay1.html
-MedMarkets, "Telesurgery to Impact Medical Care," available at http://www.intersurgtech.com/MMDarticle.pdf