Welcome back everyone to Seeker Plus. This is episode three, in a three episode series on
surgeries. If you missed the first couple episodes go check them out. We've talked about
how far surgeries come since the days of really holes in the people's skulls
to like evil spirits out. So obviously we've come a long way, and we broke down at some of the most
interesting surgeries out there, but today I'd like to look to the future, what kind of
Megadroid super surgeons gonna be fixing up in 10 years 50 years or I hope really 100 years,
it probably won't surprise you to learn, we already have some robots in the operating room
and they're pretty good. I mean they're especially incredible at minimally invasive surgeries because
a robot can make a tiny incision and operate without having to cut a hole big enough for
a surgeon to get their home. This means that smaller stars and less exposed areas,
a surgeon working with a robot can have better precision, flexibility and control with whatever
procedure they're doing. In fact, surgeries with robots have lower infection rates for pieces,
it can also mean less pain and less blood loss, and all of this leads to faster recovery,
and better survival rates, which is obviously the whole goal. The key point here though is that
these robots are operating on their own, they're remote controlled it's
like a video game played by a surgeon, like a really really high stakes video. Don't worry,
if you've ever played Surgeon Simulator. It's nothing like that it's actually precise and not
naturally frustrating, and there are autonomous surgery robots in the works though that
wouldn't need a surgeon to actually be pulling the levers and pressing the buttons. Now, most
of these autonomous robots work with static body parts like bones and hip or knee surgeries but
soft tissue is tricky. Onne self-controlled bot known as the smart tissue autonomous robot or STAR
repaired a pig's small intestines. It performed the surgery, using all of its own vision, tools
and intelligence, and when comparing the robot sutures with human surgeons, the robot stitches
were more consistent and evenly spaced. They also held up better and leaked less. This robot is like a long
flexible arm with a rotational head with a needle, thread and force sensor. The roboticists had a hard time,
mimicking the sewing motion of a surgeon. So, this robot looks more like a nail gun, lining up the needle
and shooting it through the tissue. It guides itself with calibration based on 3d images from small cameras on the head,
the researchers behind Star said they see a future operating room of robots operating on their own,
with supervision by surgeon, but one of my favorite visions about the future is less about
large auto robots that cut people open and root around and more about tiny autonomous robots,
these are nanobots so small they can get into your bloodstream and travel straight to the
source of the problem, fix the body from the inside out and talk about minimally invasive,
that's it there's no incisional replacement, but the barrier, integrating both big and small
autonomous robots according to scientists, is that it's hard for robots to recognize and respond,
soft tissue, which is all of the gooey stuff that we need them to fix. So, what's next is
to design robots that have a hypersensitive sense of touch. One project on this is giving their bots
an artificial skin sensor of sorts that way the robot to feel the difference between different organs,
rather than following a program or using cameras that would have to interpret the images.
Still, AI is not at the point yet where machines can autonomously make the same decisions as an
experienced surgeon, which is why the future of surgery is less about replacing surgeons
and more about giving them better technology to use. That's not to say artificial intelligence,
doesn't have a place in medicine at all it's a tool that just keeps getting better. Today
hospitals can analyze data collected from surgeries worldwide to predict outcomes for their
patients. In particular, there are systems being developed that allow the doctor to collect genetic
information from patients blood, and then run it through a database to see how that individual
is likely to react to surgery, medicines and anesthesia. This alone can help the success rate of surgeries and
help surgeons prepare for specific scenarios, even one day monitor the surgeons themselves,
to make sure that they're in tip top shape and sense if they're about to make a wrong move.
Now, something that's really annoying for a surgeon, I've read obviously I don't know
from experience is when they can't clearly see information but you'll remember this was a huge
issue at the beginning of medical history we talked about in episode one, about how being
able to visualize the inside of the human body was a huge leap forward for surgeons, so they actually
knew what they were dealing with when they improved so much just from pictures of textbooks,
and then again from dissecting cadavers, today we have even more tools for this,
there are artificial 3d models that bleed when they are cut and then surgeons can practice on those.
They can also experience new surgeries in virtual reality, even just the ability to
watch videos of surgeries happening worldwide has made for better surgeon education all around.
But funny enough something so simple, is still a massive issue for surgeons, and that is lighting
not having enough light, or having light that causes glares shadows,
is just annoying. It can be not seen something critical mid operation and it could be the
difference between life and death. That's why it's kind of surprising that the lighting and
operating rooms hasn't evolved much in the last decade. To remedy this, electronics engineers
have partnered with Mayo Clinic to make a smarter light that uses machine learning and cameras,
to analyze, and alter the intensity and direction of life for surgeons, one day these lights may
be able to respond to voice commands and react to movement in the room, in fact, turning the entire
operating room into a kind of smart house. Basically the whole
idea is a room for respond to voice commands or follow clues with its own intelligence,
it can automatically clean surfaces, zap germs with UV, and prep machines for intake of organs,
as they're removed or set aside temporarily, but having all this technology involved in surgeries,
well it's making some people nervous, they wonder about robots having a glitch or malfunctioning
or where blame should be placed if a surgery or diagnosis by a non human as well for a lot
of people, the whole goal of medicine should be more about preventing people from needing surgery
in the first place, but because the practice is advancing so much since the early days,
surgery has gotten so much better. At least we can get more confident procedures in the future,
will really be incredible. We could get into the future of medicine and preventative care
on another episode, if you'd like, but for now we're going to leave it at that. Thank
you so much for tuning in to Seeker Plus, I'm your host and we'll see you next time.