A KINDER CUT: Robots can make surgery quicker, cheaper and safer. So why aren't they in every operating theatre

摘要

The role of technology in providing 'more power to the medical profession's elbow' has long been recognised, but sometimes the delivery process can seem, painfully protracted, A 1986 study by the OECD group of leading nations into the potential uses of robots in medicine and healthcare identified more than 400 possible applications. Almost 20 years later, it seems that the promise is finally being realised on a significant scale in the operating theatre as developments in mechatronics provide a physical platform for suitable applications. "Microelectronics has fundamentally changed the way machines are designed," says Professor Paolo Dark), director of the Advanced Robotics Technology and Systems Laboratory at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa and a key figure in several major research projects aimed at developing complex systems for medical applications. "It's a very serious field to be in Everybody's doing medical robotics and there are good reasons for that."