Surgery From Miles Away
Published: October 11, 2006
If a soldier fighting in a desolate battlefield gets hurt, how will doctors safely provide medical care?
What if an astronaut in space is injured?
New technology may solve the problem — and one day allow doctors to operate from miles away!
Surgery From Miles Away
“There we go. We have the remote site back, Lance,” a doctor is told.
In the middle of a California desert, doctors perform a revolutionary surgical procedure. The simulated patient is in one place, and the surgeon is in another — operating through a robot!
“No one’s ever put a robot out in the desert. So, we’re the first.” they say.
Surgeon Timothy Broderick initially operates from a few miles away in Simi Valley — then, tests the technology a few thousand miles away — in Seattle.
“We will be able to operate no matter where the patient is,” says Dr. Timothy Broderick, a Robotic Surgeon/Engineer at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.
A prototype plane provides the communication link — instead of satellites — which can take too long.
“For example, you watch a TV interview and someone’s over in Iraq, and we’re here in the states, they have to wait for a second to hear the question and then answer. We can’t do that if we’re operating on somebody,” says Dr. Broderick.
The plane allows the video to come up with minimal delay, so broderick can guide the robotic arms. An engineering team at the University of Washington designed the compact robot.
“There’s a lot of cutting-edge technology, and each piece has to be working for the whole system to work,” says Dr. Blake Hannaford, Ph.D., an Electrical Engineer at the University of Washington in Seattle.
They hope this will be a way to treat soldiers and astronauts with trauma injuries but say the general public could also benefit.
“Obviously, if it works on the battlefield or up in space, it’s going to work down here on the ground. The spin offs are amazing,” says Dr. Broderick.
Like using it in rural areas or during natural disasters. Dr. Broderick says there are some glitches to resolve. But, this could be the surgery of the 21st century.
The US Army also collaborated on this project.
Dr. Broderick says it will take several more years of testing before the procedure is performed on a live person.
The next experiments will likely take place between Hawaii and the mainland.
By the way, the surgery Dr. Broderick performed was a routine suture procedure.
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