Medical Update — continued from Page 33 extend from colorectal cancer, the third
hospital recovery time of three to four days,
specialist that might be located, let’s say,
most deadly cancer worldwide, to obesity,
as opposed to up to two weeks with tradi-
in an urban setting, in a hospital there that
which affects 72 million people in the U.S.
tional surgery. For chest-area procedures,
has a number of specialists,” Jordan says.
alone. The demand is huge.
the da Vinci surgical robot eliminates the
“Their expertise can be available at these
need for a sternotomy (an 8- to 10-inch
remote and rural hospitals.”
“All hospitals these days will have a large volume of prostate cancer procedures or gynecological procedures with a robot,” Patel says. “A lot of the procedural problems have gone away.” In cardiology, da Vinci is commonly used to treat mitral valve prolapse, when a heart valve does not properly seal, and coronary artery disease, a narrowing of the blood vessels that supply the heart. Cardiac patients who choose da Vinci surgery to repair their mitral valve have an average in-
incision through the breastbone), making patient recovery faster and hospital stays shorter.
Still, many of the benefits of robotic surgery come from the manned side of the operation. The basic learning curve for a physi-
InTouch Health uses its RP-7 robots to as-
cian using a robot during surgery is about
sist stroke patients in rural areas, because
50 cases, making experience the No. 1
the technology allows doctors to lend them-
predictor of the outcome of surgery.
selves to remote hospitals and patients as needed. Jordan says this is especially helpful, because the number of stroke specialists is declining. “By using our technology, we can have a
“Autonomy can be applied at very different levels with very different behaviors,” Jordan says. “The trick is to apply that appropriately so that the safety and the efficacy are appropriate for what you’re trying to accomplish.” It seems robotic surgical systems have nowhere to go but up as the demand for doctors grows, especially in primary care. As more and more physicians look to lucrative specializations and big-city hospitals for employment, patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes or obesity get left in the lurch. Ford acknowledges there is a serious problem of physician shortages in rural areas and less glamorous fields of medicine. This could lead to a new type of relationship between robots and healthcare workers in which automated systems are responsible for much of the diagnostic and procedural work in patient care, while a person is still involved with the more “human” aspects of health care like bedside manner. “You already see that to some extent with nurse practitioners, but of course we also have a shortage of nurses,” Ford says. “So I think there’s an opportunity for another type of professional that’s maybe specifically trained to work with these diagnostic systems, and they might still operate under the division of doctors.”
Doctors test robotic surgical equipment on the show floor at the American Urological Association conference in Washington, D.C. Robots play a role in the majority of prostate removal surgeries. Photo by Stephanie Levy.
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Mission Critical
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Fall 2011
On the procedural side, robots are highly involved in routine hospital work. These systems make deliveries within hospitals and