Step aside, Ben Carson. The once lauded ability to perform delicate operations with gifted hands may soon be replaced with the consistent precision of an autonomous robot. And—bonus—robots don’t get sleepy.
In a world’s first, researchers report using an autonomous robot to perform surgical operations on soft tissue and in living pigs, where the adroit droid stitched up broken bowels. The researchers published the robotic reveal in the journal Science Translational Medicine, and they noted the new machinery surpassed the consistency and precision of expert surgeons, laparoscopy, and robot-assisted (non-autonomous robotic) surgery.
Source: First autonomous robot to operate on soft tissue outdoes human surgeons
I for one welcome our suturing overlords…
The advancement in technology is impressive. Roughly the last 100 years have seen incredible technology advancements, now we’re working on vehicles that self-drive (elec/alternative fuels have been done in the past). It stands to reason that similar technology would help for something like surgery.
That said, the robot is performing the surgery. That does not include diagnosis.
My Warfarin Diet 