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MIT’s thread-like robot can slip through blood vessels in your brain
MIT engineers created a thread-like robot that can glide through the brain's blood vessels and could deliver clot-reducing drugs to treat strokes or aneurysms. The robotic thread could offer an alternative to open brain surgery, and it could be controlled by surgeons outside of the operating room. Theoretically, surgeons could control it remotely from an entirely different location.
Scientists want to define just how smart robot surgeons are
For roughly three decades, medical robots have assisted surgeons in the operating theater. They provide a steady hand and can make tiny incisions with pinpoint accuracy. But as robotics improve, a new question has emerged: How should autonomous robots be treated? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves medical devices, while medical societies monitor doctors. A robot that can operate on its own falls somewhere in between. To help, Science Robotics has produced a scale for grading autonomy in robot-assisted surgery. If adopted, it could help regulators decide when and how machines should be treated like humans.
Boston Children's Hospital preps surgeons with custom 3D-printed models
Undoubtedly, 3D printing has taken root in a variety of disciplines, and medicine is no stranger to leveraging its tool kit. At Boston Children's Hospital, surgeons are using printed models to prep for the operating room. "With 3D printing, we're taking a step that allows experienced doctors to simulate the specific anatomy of their patients and allows the best of the best to become even better," says Peter Weinstock, MD, PhD. Dr. Weinstock is working on an in-house service that's capable of constructing the models in short order. Using scans from the hospital's radiology department and a 3D printer capable of super high-resolution output (16 microns, to be exact), the models allow doctors to examine details of a baby's skull or brain. What's more, the machine can use multiple materials to sculpt the final result, simulating the unique facets of bone, skin and blood vessels individually. For surgeons-in-training, the custom-made prints can illustrate the details of a medical condition rather than an average look.
Sony unveils first medical-grade OLED monitor, surgery gets rendered in all-too-vivid color
OLED screens are virtually everywhere, and they're steadily getting bigger, but it was tough to find any in hospitals until now. While Sony's 25-inch PVM-2551MD might not have the most glamorous name, it's the first and only OLED monitor with FDA approval for use in surgery. No, it's not just to give the doctor something more pleasing (or disgusting) to look at while she's removing a gallstone -- the organic display can be a genuine help for surgery through the higher contrast, virtually non-existent blur and more faithful color reproduction versus the LCDs it's meant to replace. Us patients likely won't see the now-shipping 2551MD for much longer than it takes to go unconscious, so it might be hard to appreciate; if it helps surgeons finish operations faster and with fewer mistakes, however, we could all reap the rewards.
Researchers aim to give surgeons 3D maps, directions of human body
While a GPS-style "navigation system" for surgeons may not seem like the best idea to anyone that's ever been led astray by their dash-mounted co-pilot, it apparently seemed like a good enough idea for a group of researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. While they do stretch the metaphor a bit, the group's TLEMsafe system does provide surgeons with a complete 3D map of the lower body, which can actually be personalized for each individual patient, giving surgeons a reference and means to practice before any actual surgery takes place -- and, yes, even an "automated navigation system" during surgery. Coincidentally, some researchers from the University of Colorado have also just announced that they've developed a similar modeling system that would give surgeons 3D views of arteries and let them see any blockages up close. It's even already been tested on patients, while the University of Twente says its system will be ready for clinical trials in about four years' time.
Wii used to hone surgeons' fine motor skills
Proving that children and the elderly are not the only groups seeing benefits from Nintendo's Wii, a study on a small group of surgeons who had practiced gaming with a modified controller showed them to achieve significantly more improvement on a standard simulator procedure than did a corresponding group of control subjects. Study author Kanav Kahol worked with Dr. Marshall Smith of the Banner Health hospital chain to build a special Wiimote attachment (read: broken golf club add on + laparoscopic probe) that eight surgical residents used to play Marble Mania and the full suite of Wii Play games. The gamers were then pitted against eight of their less-fortunate colleagues in a computer-simulated laparoscopic procedure, and managed to attain 48% higher scores, on average, than the non-gamers. Unfortunately, games involving broader motions such as tennis or boxing are said to be less suitable for this sort of training, make a total liar out of your doctor the next time you catch him "honing up on the latest techniques" by playing Wii Golf.[Image courtesy of The Wall Street Journal]
Cellphone lights enable operation to proceed in blackout
Hearing that a cellphone saved someone's life isn't exactly surprising these days, but it was the manner in which a bundle of handsets enabled doctors to continue on in a recent operation that differentiated this one from the rest. Reportedly, the backup generators at the Policlinico Juan D. Peron hospital in Argentina failed to activate after the power went out whilst an appendix surgery was ongoing, but rather than panicking, a family member gathered up a number of phones in order to provide enough light for the surgeons and anesthetists to keep on keepin' on. According to the hospital director, the operation went on without proper lighting for no more than 20 minutes, but thanks to the beaming LCDs, the fellow under the knife came through just fine.[Via Switched, image courtesy of foto8]
Gamers make better surgeons, study says
According to a new study published in the Archives of Surgery, surgeons who put in their downtime playing video games proved to have considerably higher surgical skills than their non-gamer co-workers, in particular when it came to laparoscopic surgery, which involves manipulating instruments while staring at a monitor. While the study is far from authoritative, with only 33 surgeons participating in it, it nonetheless found that those who played video games for at least three hours a week performed 27 percent faster, made 37 percent fewer errors, and scored 42 percent better in surgical tests than those who had not played video games. The correlation between video games and surgical skills was apparently so high that it proved to be an even greater indicator of performance than either the length of an individual's surgical training or their prior experience with laporscopic surgery. No word if those that snuck in some extra practice in Trauma Center on their DS had an even bigger advantage.
Gamers make better surgeons
A study at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York found doctors who had played video games at least three hours per week made "37 percent fewer errors, performed 27 percent faster and scored 42 percent better in the test of surgical skills."Following a study we reported on today that games don't actually lead to violent behavior, can we say games will help make better doctors? "Parents should not see this study as beneficial if their child is playing video games for over an hour a day," said Douglas Gentile, one of the authors of the study. "Spending that much time playing video games is not going to help their child's chances of getting into medical school." Gentile was also part of a survey in 2004 that found adolescents who play video games for an average of nine hours a week had a 94 percent chance of being aggressive, getting bad grades and generally being sloth like.The prognosis here is that playing at least three hours a week makes you a surgeon, but around nine hours you'll end up becoming a blight to humanity. So, get your kids some Trauma Center, let them play it one hour every day during the week and call us in 20 years.
Study: gamers make better surgeons ... duh!
This shouldn't be news to any of you who've played Trauma Center: Under the Knife on the DS. You've already spent hours perfecting your surgical technique and could, undoubtedly, cut open a human body, repair it, and sew it back up with that training. A new study conducted by the Beth Israel Medical Center has found that doctors who played video games immediately before a laparoscopic surgery drill finished quicker, implying they made fewer errors. The findings coincide with an earlier study that found that doctors who grew up playing video games "tended to be more efficient and less error-prone" when tested in similar drills.Exactly what do these drills entail? The surgeon who conducted the study compared laparoscopic surgery to "trying to tie your shoe laces with three-foot-long chopsticks while watching on a TV screen." That game sounds great![Thanks, White Rose Duelist]
