Next Generation Surgical Robots: Where's the Doctor?

Colleagues,

As reported in ScienceDaily ... As physician-guided robots routinely operate on patients at most major hospitals, the next generation robot could eliminate a surprising element from that scenario -- the doctor...

... Feasibility studies conducted by Duke University bioengineers have demonstrated that a robot -- without any human assistance -- can locate a man-made, or phantom, lesion in simulated human organs, guide a device to the lesion and take multiple samples during a single session. The researchers believe that as the technology is further developed,autonomous robots could some day perform many more simple surgical tasks...

... The results of the Duke research appear in the current issue of the journal Ultrasonic Imaging. An earlier study reported in the January issue of the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology

described the Duke team's results on simulated breast tissue...

... The Duke team combined a "souped-up" version of an existing robot arm with an ultrasound system of its own design. The ultrasound serves as the robot's "eyes" by collecting data from its scan and locating its target. The robot is "controlled" not by a physician, but by an artificial intelligence program that takes the real-time 3-D information, processes it and gives the robot specific commands to perform. The robot arm has a mechanical "hand" that can manipulate the same biopsy plunger device that physicians use to reach a lesion and take samples...

... The research in the laboratory of Stephen Smith, director of the Duke University Ultrasound Transducer Group at the Pratt School of Engineering and senior member of the research team, is supported by the National Institutes of Health...
Medical Center.

References

Read on at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100720131856.htm

ENJOY!