Rather than a wing of a hospital - more useful would be remote care and operations. Imagine having access to the best surgeons in your local library, school or [aged] care facility. Not having to fly hundreds of kms or risking life and limb in traffic to have a baby.
A lot of surgery these days already involves robots. > Laparoscopic surgery, also called minimally invasive surgery (MIS), bandaid > surgery, or keyhole surgery, is a modern surgical technique in which > operations are performed far from their location through small incisions > (usually 0.5–1.5 cm) elsewhere in the body. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laparoscopic_surgery Marghanita On 12/02/16 13:15, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > Robots in health care could lead to a doctorless hospital > The Conversation > Anjali Jaiprakash > Jonathan Roberts > Ross Crawford > February 9, 2016 6.07am AED > https://theconversation.com/robots-in-health-care-could-lead-to-a-doctorless-hospital-54316 > > Imagine your child requires a life-saving operation. You enter the > hospital and are confronted with a stark choice. > > Do you take the traditional path with human medical staff, including > doctors and nurses, where long-term trials have shown a 90% chance that > they will save your child’s life? > > Or do you choose the robotic track, in the factory-like wing of the > hospital, tended to by technical specialists and an array of robots, but > where similar long-term trials have shown that your child has a 95% > chance of survival? > > Most rational people would opt for the course of action that is more > likely to save their child. But are we really ready to let machines take > over from a human in delivering patient care? > > Of course, machines will not always get it right. But like autopilots in > aircraft, and the driverless cars that are just around the corner, > medical robots do not need to be perfect, they just have to be better > than humans. > > So how long before robots are shown to perform better than humans at > surgery and other patient care? It may be sooner, or it may be later, > but it will happen one day. > > But what does this mean for our hospitals? Are the new hospitals being > built now ready for a robotic future? Are we planning for large-scale > role changes for the humans in our future robotic factory-like hospitals? > > Our future hospitals > > Hospitals globally have been slow to adopt robotics and artificial > intelligence into patient care, although both have been widely used and > tested in other industries. > > Medicine has traditionally been slow to change, as safety is at its > core. Financial pressures will inevitably force industry and governments > to recognise that when robots can do something better and for the same > price as humans, the robot way will be the only way. > > What some hospitals have done in the past 10 years is recognise the > potential to be more factory-like, and hence more efficient. The term > “focused factories” has been used to describe some of these new > hospitals that specialise in a few key procedures and that organise the > workflow in a more streamlined and industrial way. > > They have even tried “lean processing” methods borrowed from the car > manufacturing industry. One idea is to free up the humans in hospitals > so that they can carry out more complex cases. > > Some people are nervous about turning hospitals into factories. There > are fears that “lean” means cutting money and hence employment. But if > the motivation for going lean is to do more with the same, then it is > likely that employment will change rather than reduce. > > Medicine has long been segmented into many specialised fields but the > doctor has been expected to travel with the patient through the full > treatment pathway. > > A surgeon, for example, is expected to be compassionate, and good at > many tasks, such as diagnosing, interpreting tests, such as X-rays and > MRIs, performing a procedure and post-operative care. > > As in numerous other industries, new technology will be one of the > drivers that will change this traditional method of delivery. We can see > that one day, each of the stages of care through the hospital could be > largely achieved by a computer, machine or robot. > > Some senior doctors are already seeing a change and they are worried > about the de-humanising of medicine but this is a change for the better. > > Safety first but some AI already here > > Our future robot-factory hospital example is the end game, but many of > its components already exist. We are simply waiting for them to be > tested enough to satisfy us all that they can be used safely. > > There are programs to make diagnoses based on a series of questions, and > algorithms inform many treatments used now by doctors. > > Surgeons are already using robots in the operating theatre to assist > with surgery. Currently, the surgeon remains in control with the machine > being more of a slave than a master. As the machines improve, it will be > possible for a trained technician to oversee the surgery and ultimately > for the robot to be fully in charge. > > Hospitals will be very different places in 20 years. Beds will be able > to move autonomously transporting patients from the emergency room to > the operating theatre, via X-ray if needed. > > Triage will be done with the assistance of an AI device. Many decisions > on treatment will be made with the assistance of, or by, intelligent > machines. > > Your medical information, including medications, will be read from a > chip under your skin or in your phone. No more waiting for medical > records or chasing information when an unconscious patient presents to > the emergency room. > > Robots will be able to dispense medication safely and rehabilitation > will be robotically assisted. Only our imaginations can limit how health > care will be delivered. > Who is responsible when things go wrong? > > The hospital of the future may not require many doctors, but the numbers > employed are unlikely to change at first. > > Doctors in the near future are going to need many different skills than > the doctors of today. An understanding of technology will be imperative. > They will need to learn programming and computer skills well before the > start of medical school. Programming will become the fourth literacy > along with reading, writing (which may vanish) and arithmetic. > > But who will people sue if something goes wrong? This is, sadly, one of > the first questions many people ask. > > Robots will be performing tasks and many of the diagnoses will be made > by a machine, but at least in the near future there will be a human > involved in the decision-making process. > > Insurance costs and litigation will hopefully reduce as machines perform > procedures more precisely and with fewer complications. But who do you > sue if your medical treatment goes tragically wrong and no human has > touched you? That’s a question that still needs to be answered. > > So too is the question of whether people will really trust a machine to > make a diagnosis, give out tablets or do an operation? > > Perhaps we have to accept that humans are far from perfect and mistakes > are inevitable in health care, just as they are when we put humans > behind the wheel of a car. So if driverless cars are going to reduce > traffic accidents and congestion then maybe doctorless hospitals will > one day save more lives and reduce the cost of health care? > -- Marghanita da Cruz Telephone: 0414-869202 http://www.ramin.com.au _______________________________________________ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
