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Why An Autonomous Robot Won’t Replace Your Surgeon Anytime Soon

Earlier this year, robots withdrew in defeat from the hospital.

Johnson & Johnson had been trying—operative word, trying—to sell a robot that can put patients to sleep for simple procedures like colonoscopies. Who did not like this? Human anesthesiologists, of course, whose jobs would be on the line. Professional groups lobbied hard against the device, questioning its safety. Even after the Food and Drug Administration approved the device, hospitals were wary. In March, Johnson & Johnson quietly stopped selling its anesthesiology robot.

But the robots are coming—they’re just not coming for any doctors’ jobs yet. To get hospitals to trust robots, their makers have realized,…

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Featured

 Why Robotic Surgery Could Increase Human Surgeon Demand

You might be thinking now that surgeon jobs are at risk. But actually, it might be just the opposite.

Articles of Interest

Robot-Assisted Surgery Costs More But May Not Be Better

ospitals tout the technique, but two studies find they’re longer and pricier than laparoscopy.

The rise of robotics and AI-assisted surgery in modern healthcare

The integration of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in surgery represents a transformative advancement in modern healthcare, promising enhanced precision, efficiency, and patient outcomes. Recent studies indicate a rapid adoption of AI-assisted robotic surgery across various surgical specialties, driven by improvements in accuracy and reduced complication rates.

A Surgical Robotics Pioneer on the Future of Medical Technology

At FutureMed, Dr. Richard Satava gave an impressive presentation that touched on everything from breakthroughs in surgical robotics to plasma medicine.

Are robot surgeons in the operating theatre as safe as they could be?

Robot-assisted surgery is primarily used in urology, but is expanding into gynaecology, ear, nose and throat, colorectal, cardiology, and paediatric surgery. NHS England is currently reviewing the evidence for robot-assisted surgery in order to develop rules for where and for what operations robot-assisted surgery can be used.

Are Robotic Surgeries Really Better?

Robot-assisted surgeries have only modest advantages over other approaches, a large analysis found. Surgical procedures performed with the aid of a robot is sometimes marketed as the “best” form of surgery. But a recent review of 50 randomized controlled trials, testing robot-assisted surgeries against conventional methods for abdominal or pelvic procedures, suggests that while there may be some benefits to robotic surgery, any advantages over other approaches are modest.

Cancer Patients Are Getting Robotic Surgery. There’s No Evidence It’s Better.

High-tech surgical robots aren’t an improvement over traditional operations, the F.D.A. warns. For some patients, the robots may be worse.

Cancer Patients Are Getting Robotic Surgery. There’s No Evidence It’s Better.

High-tech surgical robots aren’t an improvement over traditional operations, the F.D.A. warns. For some patients, the robots may be worse.

Demand for robot-assisted surgery comes with controversy

Studies have shown that adding this expensive technology for routine surgical care does not improve patient outcomes. Consequently, there is no good data proving that robotic hysterectomy is even as good as — let alone better — than existing, and far less costly, minimally invasive alternatives," the organization said in its statement. Yet this doesn't mean robot-assisted surgeries aren't better in some cases, ACOG added, writing: "Robotic hysterectomy is best used for unusual and complex clinical conditions in which improved outcomes over standard minimally invasive approaches have been demonstrated."

Doctors are secretly teaching themselves how to do robotic surgery

Surgery carries an inherent risk, but what can we do to mitigate it?

Is Robotic Prostate Surgery Better Than Traditional Surgery?

Some doctors say it leads to less blood loss and faster recoveries, but others say traditional open surgery remains the gold standard.

Lowering Surgical Costs: Is Robotics the Answer?

It can be tempting, when a robotic surgical system requires an upfront capital investment, to focus exclusively on the cost of acquisition. But managing costs requires so much more than the initial capital outlay. The concept of the Quintuple Aim encourages the broader health care community to consider a host of factors beyond the simplistic utilization of a piece of capital in the operating room (OR). The convergence of improved patient experience, better surgical outcomes, clinician well-being, patient access, diversity of specialties and breadth of procedures, and lower costs is where hospital leaders remain focused.

Med Students Are Getting Terrible Training in Robotic Surgery

A researcher reckons that at most, one out of five residents at top-tier institutions are succeeding at robotic surgery.

Medical ROBOTS: Innovation or Hype?

Sci fi film scenes from 50 years ago are now an everyday reality, robots performing complicated surgery. So, do they make a difference?

New Studies Look At Cost And Benefits Of Robotic Surgery

Despite the lack of consistent data from studies on the clear benefits of robotic surgery, adoption of robotic surgery is on solid ground.

Robot surgery on humans could be trialled within decade after success on pig organs

AI-trained robot carries out procedures on dead pig organs to remove gall bladders without any human help.

Robot-assisted surgery can cut blood clot risk and speed recovery, study finds

In world-first trial, bladder cancer patients who had robotic surgery went home sooner and were less likely to be readmitted

Robotic health care is coming to a hospital near you

Medical robots are helping doctors and other professionals save time, lower costs and shorten patient recovery times, but patients may not be ready. Our research into human perceptions of automated health care finds that people are wary of getting their health care from an automated system, but that they can adjust to the idea – especially if it saves them money.

Should We Fall Out of Love with Robot Surgery?

The FDA is investigating whether doctors aren’t getting enough training before they start using machines to do surgery. Is the “wow” factor to blame?

The Future of Surgery: Less Cutting, More Robots

In the past few years, surgeons have been pushing to make these less invasive surgeries almost entirely invisible. Instead of cutting a tiny window in the outside of the body, they thought, why not cut one inside? Surgeons would first enter a person's body through a "natural orifice" and make one small incision, through which to access internal organs. The end result of this idea was that, in 2009, a surgeon removed a woman's kidney through her vagina.

The High-Tech Hospital Where Atom Smashers and Robots Rule

Normally, when you think of a “community hospital,” images of futuristic devices like robotic surgery machines and atom-smashing cancer treatments aren’t what immediately come to mind. But they’re exactly what the University Medical Center of Princeton (UMCP) in Plainsboro, New Jersey, has begun to employ.

The Microscopic Future of Surgical Robotics

For us prospective patients, it doesn’t necessarily matter who makes microsurgery more accessible. What matters is that it’s coming. “We as a medical community haven’t made a lot of therapies that require that kind of super microscopic view and manipulation, because those are at the limit of what the human hands can do at unscaled motion,” says Mohr. “But if we kind of break that barrier, I think it will unleash a lot of new therapies that will have profound effects on patients’ lives.”

The Past, Present and Future of Robotic Surgery

After decades of merely assisting doctors, are sophisticated machines ready to take charge? As the technology develops, Opfermann suggests, autonomous robots may start out getting approval only for simpler tasks, such as holding a camera. As more and more of these basic jobs get approved, the tasks may build up into an autonomous system. In cars, we first got cruise control, he says, but now there’s brake assist, lane assist, even assisted parking — all of which build towards something driverless.

The Robot Surgeon Will See You Now

Real scalpels, artificial intelligence — what could go wrong? “It is an exciting time,” said Russell Taylor, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and former IBM researcher known in the academic world as the father of robotic surgery. “It is where I hoped we would be 20 years ago.”

The Robots of Medicine: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Costs?

In theory, surgical robots should assist clunky humans with tasks that we have trouble with, but we're still outperforming them in many ways.

Training Better Robotic Surgeons

In the real world, Kim says robot-assisted surgery isn't right for every patient. A surgeon needs to know when to use it and when not to. And those decisions can change as researchers continue to study patient outcomes from robotic surgery.

Young doctors struggle to learn robotic surgery – so they are practicing in the shadows

As one resident said: “If you’re on the robot and [control is] taken away, it’s completely taken away and you’re just left to think about exactly what you did wrong, like a kid sitting in the corner with a dunce cap. Whereas in open surgery, you’re still working.”

Resources

Society of Robotic Surgery

This society is founded on the fundamental principles of education and collaboration as a means to tackle the complex issues of robotic surgery.

IRCAD France

IRCAD offers an exceptional training facility, which welcomes over 8,800 surgeons from all minimally invasive surgical and endoscopic specialties every year. The amazing involvement and self-commitment of more than 800 international experts is key to the Institute’s success. In addition, IRCAD is constantly developing its research departments in the field of computer and robotic technologies applied to surgery and GI endoscopy, in order to always remain in synch with the latest technological developments.