Robotic Nation Evidence

Robotic Surgeons

Robots invade the operating room



From the article:

Hundreds of robots have invaded operating rooms across the globe. No, it's not a new horror movie. Surgeons are inviting these robots to be the newest members of their teams. The minimally-invasive machines are ushering in an era of surgical precision and results unmatched by the human hand.

Also:

And as the doctor never touches the patient, the traditional boundaries of the operating room walls are melting away, allowing surgeons to operate da Vinci from across the globe.

Menon thinks the "sky's the limit" for robotics in the operating room. And doctors, like airline pilots, will earn their wings on simulators. So that when a surgeon sits down for their first operation, they will have done it hundreds of times in virtual reality.

Surgical robots are brilliant machines -- there is no denying it. The robot's ability to operate through extremely small incisions helps the patient in many different ways. Because of their many benefits, the use of these machines will expand rapidly for many different types of surgery.

The article's comparison of surgeons to pilots is telling. Over the next 10 to 20 years, pilots will be replaced by advanced auto-pilots and eliminated from the cockpit. In the same way, as robotic vision systems advance, it will be possible to create completely robotic surgeons that will displace human surgeons from the operating room. These robotic surgeons will also train on simulators. However, they will be able to train 24 hours a day and they will have none of the problems with fatigue or illness that plague human surgeons. Once robotic surgeons surpass human surgeons, human surgeons will cease to exist. The same thing will happen across the medical profession -- doctors, nurses, technicians, assistants, etc. will all be replaced by robots and out of work.

In the process of eliminating human beings from the medical profession, medical care will improve dramatically. How much will it improve? I saw an ad at the airport last November. The ad was paid for by the AAOS (The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons). This ad shows a patient sitting in a gown on a table. Using a felt-tip marker, the doctor in the ad is signing his name on one of the patient's knees. The point of the ad is to say to patients, "Before the anesthesiologist puts you to sleep, make sure to have your doctor personally sign the part of your body needing surgery so he/she doesn't make a mistake and operate on the wrong thing."

The fact that this ad exists and was running nationwide on billboards in airports tells you that there is a big problem with human error in the operating room. When human error among doctors is that rampant -- so rampant that you start seeing ads in airports -- you know how big the problem is. Who is going to want a human doctor to perform surgery once mistake-free robotic doctors are available? Robotic doctors will be better, they will cost nothing compared to a human doctor, and they won't be taking out your appendix when they are supposed to be operating on your left knee.

The question is: where will all of the people displaced from the medical profession go once they are laid off? See Robotic Nation for details.