@Sati

... what the hell was up with the Fresh Princery?

Steven - thanks for the post, interesting stuff! Do you think it'll become standard? What sort of timeframe?

Fair point!

We have one LCD panel laparoscopic stack (I think it's SD though) at the hospital where I work, which is strange because the tertiary hospital just up the road doesn't have any, they're all still CRT! Compared to the old LCD monitors the LCD is a joy to behold and certainly makes operating more pleasant... but I don't think it's saved any lives to be honest.

Maybe for smaller hospitals that only need to purchase one or two units (as opposed to ten or twelve) the difference in price wouldn't be such a big deal. And maybe private hospitals might be more interested in investing in this sort of equipment.

I guess it comes down to government/health departments/private enterprise to decide how they want to spend their dollars. I know here in Aus., where a perfectly acceptable and cheaper alternative exists (old school CRT stacks) the "superior" LCD option would have to demonstrably produce measurably superior results in order to justify spending large amounts of money to make it the "standard".

Nice though.

Don't get me wrong, these are very shiny indeed, but show me some evidence that it actually improves outcomes for patients. I suspect THAT (not "money") is the real reason why HD monitors are only slowly being adopted for endoscopic surgery - in order to justify the cost one would have to demonstrate some tangible benefit (beyond just making OR staff go "ooh" and "aah").

Wow, way to go with the doctor bashing. I particularly enjoyed "replacing costly doctors with one-time cost machines who are better and don't complain." Mate, I think you've been watching too much poor quality TV. Or maybe Nip/Tuck - which is not a documentary.

What makes you think these machines would be upkeep-free? Like all surgical tools the workings parts would need fastidious maintenance and sterilising between cases - which would definitely not be as simple (or cheap) as just chucking a scalpel handle in the autoclave.

Trained surgeons can do more than one operation and a human can respond to unforseen circumstances with the advantage of specialist knowledge, experience and innovation where required.

Finally, the majority of doctors' complaints involve advocating on behalf of patients to government health departments, with the ultimate aim of achieving better (or even acceptable) care for patients. Sure, they also bargain for their own employment conditions - like any other profession. That's what happens when you treat health care like a commodity.

Surgical robots are becoming more widespread and early evidence certainly suggests that they have the potential to improve outcomes for patients (which is the ultimate goal). But they'll only ever be a tool for trained surgeons to use, and they'll never replace a human operator.

That said, just in case any have become self-aware, I for one salute our surgical-grade steel overlords.

Don't be fooled. It already has AI and it's only only pretending to be the size of a cat. It is in fact fifty feet tall and wants to enslave us all.

I for one... oh it's too easy.

I for one welcome our new computerised traffic beacon overlords.

Why don't you guys post something about the article rather than just bitching about FIRST POST guy? Do none of you see the inherent irony?

I'd like to know more about this Dr. Mesh bizzo...