da Vinci robot performs organ transplant in the UK

So robotic doctors, nursebots and even remote surgery are pretty old news, but a hospital in the UK took its robotic surgery to the next level when it used the da Vinci surgical robot to perform a full live organ transplant. Whereas more simple surgeries have been attempted with da Vinci before, a live organ transplant is another order of magnitude more complex because of the care that must be taken not to damage the live tissue, as well as managing the blood flow during the process. The actual "remote" operation in this case took place from only a few feet away where the operating physician sat in front of a console, controlling the movements of the robotic "hands" — which sort of makes you wonder why s/he didn't just get up and walk over to the operating table but hey, all in the name of science, right?

[Via near near future]