Trauma Pod, the future is now!
Ideas for Barack Obamas health care plan?
How about a robot surgery machine that makes the specialist surgeon obsolete?
Ideas for Barack Obamas health care plan?
How about a robot surgery machine that makes the specialist surgeon obsolete?
A freaky robot machine operating technology could see trauma patients treated in mobile robotic surgery pods.
The Trauma Pod is operated by a sophisticated make up of 12 independent robotic systems working together. The Trauma Pod monitors the patent's vital signs, can administer fluids and oxygen, and will eventually act as an anaesthesiologist, using a robotic arm to place an IV line to deliver drugs.
The "scrub nurse", a voice-activated robot arm, passes fresh tools and supplies to the "surgeon" and disposes of used equipment, while the role of circulating nurse is performed by a tool-dispensing robot.
Each machine communicates with the others and is closely monitored by software programmed with the correct series of steps for a range of emergency procedures, to ensure everything happens in the right order and prevent collisions.
The first application for the Trauma Pod its developers claim will be the ability to retrieve someone from a war battlefield, diagnose them, and perform lifesaving procedures while transferring them to hospital.
Ultimately, the robot surgeon will be able to perform "temporary fix" procedures to buy the patient a few more hours until they reach a hospital, says lead developer Pablo Garcia at SRI International. "The system will focus on damage control surgery, the minimum necessary to stabilise someone," he says. "It could provide airway control, relieve immediate life-threatening injuries such as a collapsed lung, or stop bleeding temporarily."