The Advance of Robotic Surgery
Published date : 16 January 2013
Article date : 16 January 2013
An interesting article from Fortune covers the advancing use of robotics for standard operating procedures. It follows a 71 year old patient's experience of a machine that went inside him, navigated the space beneath his rib cage, cut and cauterised and then sewed two of his arteries back into his heart.
The machine was the da Vinci which is patented and manufactured by Intuitive Surgical (ISRG). The da Vinci includes a console, a robot and a tall server bay that connects them. Intuitive has developed a closed model: Its software and hardware are proprietary and the company controls all aspects of the da Vinci's production.
The article claims that surgeons have 'adopted robotics in droves' and that patients are also driving demand. They say that last year the Journal for Healthcare Quality reported that 41% of hospital websites advertised robotic surgery and of these, 37% did so on their homepage. Hospitals with robots are pulling in more and more patients and in some cases the existence of the robot actually increases the number of surgeries performed.
Source: Ryan Bradley, Senior Editor, Fortune, 15 January 201.3
