If you haven’t heard of the Da Vinci surgical robot, it’s probably only the most amazing surgical machine ever developed for the field of medicine. The Da Vinci Surgical Robot is an advanced surgical robot. Traditional operations entail an 8- to 10-inch incision, but Da Vinci’s two robotic arms work through pencil-size holes between the patient’s ribs.
A tiny camera enters through a third hole, giving surgeons a 360-degree view from their
video console a few feet away. The robotic appendages, each with pincer-like digits, bend and twist as the surgeon moves the fingertip controls. With no gaping chest wound, Columbia doctors-who’ve done 37 robot-assisted heart operations so far-hope Da Vinci will eventually cut recovery time from 12 weeks to 24 hours.
It’s still pretty expensive, so it’s rolling out to surgical wards all over the world very slowly. As a result, doctors are hard-pressed to find the time and resources to practice using it. That’s where the RoSS Simulator comes in.
[adsense]The RoSS simulator is a stand-alone simulator that lets doctors receive the necessary training to operate the Da Vinci surgical robot — without actually using the robot itself. This ultimately means drastically lower training costs for hospitals and other surgical facilities, and any establishment lucky enough to have a Da Vinci surgical robot won’t have to decide whether to use the device for training or surgical procedures. (www.davincisurgery.com)
Published on March 9, 2010
