The Future When Elvis Presley hit the airwaves, he had more than
his share of critics as well as ardent followers. He paved a new path for music and dance that created a firestorm of controversy.
The Beatles were mocked for their “long hair” and were a
symbol of the growing youth culture that was not broadly supported by the elders of the time.
Today, Elvis and The Beatles are pop music legends,
considered classic and actually tame by today’s pop music
standards. As John W. Gardner said, “History never looks like history when you are living through it.”
Technology and healthcare change so rapidly that “history” isn’t really very far in the past. The doctor’s handbag of
our childhood memories is now a Smartphone with an
application to calculate appropriate medication dosages and an online Physician’s Desk Reference. Healthcare providers are beginning to access electronic medical records from the palm of their hand. Technological advances that once were unimaginable are becoming commonplace.
At GRMC, we have embraced a surgical robotic tool that
allows surgeons to perform procedures on patients without the surgeon bending over the patient. The da Vinci
System is a sophisticated robotic platform designed to expand a surgeon’s capabilities and offers a minimally
invasive option for major surgery. Small incisions allow miniaturized instruments and a high-resolution 3D
camera to be introduced into the body. Seated comfortably at the da Vinci console, the surgeon views a magnified,
high-resolution 3D image of the surgical site. At the same time, state-of-the-art robotic and computer technologies scale, filter, and seamlessly translate the surgeon’s hand movements into precise micro-movements of the da Vinci instruments. 8 • Composing a Better World