Robotic Surgery and Artificial Intelligence

In today’s modern healthcare world, robot assisted surgery is commonplace. This means that robots are actively or passively helping the human surgeon better perform their jobs.

Robotic surgery takes many forms. The Da Vinci surgical system is the most common robotic surgical system. The Da Vinci performs the surgeon’s exact motions through a calibrated system. This can be used for minimally invasive surgeries where a human surgeon is directing the motions through a master manipulator and everything is executed at a smaller scale inside the patient.

Another form of robotic surgery is image-guided surgery. With this, a surgeon prescribes a pre-operative plan and the robot follows the plan like a roadmap executing even the finest of motions.

Artificial intelligence in conjunction with robotic surgery has been used successfully recently for retinal surgery. With the help of robotics, more delicate surgeries can be performed in the limited space of the human eye. With robotics, we can go beyond physical human capabilities such as had tremors and fatigue. The robots have no limitations in regards to fatigue as a human surgeon or surgical technician would experience. 

Even though the physical task is being completed by a robot, the decision-making stays with the surgeon. Part of robotic surgery in development is using artificial intelligence to bring cognitive systems that would monitor the procedure and provide recommendations for the decision-making process.  

Most of these robotic surgery systems are performing at the level of the average surgeon. As the technology and development of these systems progress, it will be imperative that surgeons embrace it and strive to fully understand their capabilities. With this understanding, surgeons can provide an even greater level of skill and service to achieve the best outcome for their patients.

Some concerns with robotic surgery include their ability to make decisions, recourse for poor decisions, and job security. If decision making is left to the sole discretion of a robotics program, the need for these to be tested and updated will be critical. Constant observation will be required to maintain quality assurance. If the wrong decision is made by a surgeon, there is a process to follow for recourse. If negligence or malpractice are concluded, consequences are in place to protect future patients. With robotic surgery, the question remains, if a robot makes the wrong decision, who is to blame?

With our society’s shift to automation, the main concern is job security. With every patient admitted and procedure performed, a number of people are in place to check-in, assess, diagnose, prep, and monitor the patient. Nurses, residents, surgeons, surgical technicians, and sterile processing technicians to name a few that rely on patients needing medical attention.

As robotic surgery continues to develop, understanding their role and potential will continue to be important to the healthcare community.

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Created on Oct 30th 2019 04:49. Viewed 408 times.

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