Robotic Surgery Makes Recovery Times Shorter

Robots have become routine in the manufacturing world and other repetitive labor. While industrial robots were developed primarily to automate dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks, medical and health robots are design for entire different environment and tasks. Those that involve direct interaction with human users, in the surgical theater, the rehabilitation center and the family room.

Robotics is already beginning to affect healthcare. Telerobotics systems such as the da Vinci Surgical system are being used to perform surgery, resulting in shorter recovery times and more reliable outcomes in some procedures. The robotics use as a part of a computer integrated surgery system enable accurate, targeted medical interventions. It has been hypothesized the interventional and surgery radiology will be transformed through the computer integration and robotics much on the way that manufacturing was revolutionized by automation several decades ago. Haptic devices, a robotic form, are already used for simulations to train medical personnel.

Robotics system such as MIT –Manus are delivering successfully physical and occupational therapy. Robots enable a greater treatment intensity that is adaptable continuously to a patient’s needs. They have already proven more effective than conventional approach, especially to assist recovery after stroke, the leading permanent cause disability in the US. The future potential robotics systems can provide therapy oversight, motivation and coaching that supplement human care with little or no supervision by human therapist, and can continue long term therapy in the home after hospitalization.

Robotic technology also has a role in basic augmenting research into human health. The ability to create a robotic system that mimics biology is one way to study and test how the human body and brain function. Furthermore, robots can be used to acquire data from biological systems with unprecedented accuracy, enabling us to gain quantitative insights into both social and physical behaviors.