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Robotic Surgery and Tele-Medicine - Advancing The Field of Medicine Into The Digital Age

Tele-medicine is a new area of medicine that uses digital communication technologies to monitor and treat patients from a distance. The possibilities of these new technologies are vast, especially as this is such a change from the usual style of treatments given to patients. Currently, Tele-medicine is used to monitor through various devices, to give doctors and nurses a look at how a person is doing, by using the internet to feed them information on things like blood pressure, weight and other vital signs. However, Tele-medicine could be used for much more than just reading and information gathering by combining with the other technologies that are defining future. Have a look.

Using 3D Images To Assess Patients

As we all know the 3D printers are used to make three dimensional solid objects from a digital model and if in future Tele-medicine could be used in conjunction with new 3D printers, this could help doctors to treat minor injuries of patient at their home only. This can be done by the patient taking a picture of themselves or the area needing medical attention, send it to a hospital who could then print out the image in 3D, rather than a standard 2D image. This development can bring a breakthrough in medical science by helping people who due to injuries, distance, age, etc, aren't able to get first aid medical treatment and it will also take the burden off from the overcrowded hospitals and clear beds for those who seriously need it. Someone who has an issue that could be treated by some first aid would be able to get advice on how to perform first aid on themselves, and if they should go see a doctor. It would be a good way to do triage before any physical visits to a hospital is made.

Tele-Medicine and Robotics

The future belongs to the automation and the combination of the Tele-medicine with the robotics could bring revolution in the world. For example, through Tele-medicine trainee doctors and medical students can get the benefit of getting connected with all the top medical universities, colleges, hospitals and simultaneously will learn and get trained to do surgeries by seeing through video monitors and also through robotic arms they will be able to perform surgeries on a patient in a whole different city, state or country. What this means for the patient is that they can receive the best of care, even if no specialist is available in the area.

Recently U.S army research, development and engineering command were exploring the idea of using their prototype medical military software with the Tele-medicine concept where soldiers are able to send total medical information, type of injuries, conditions etc, from the battlefield to the medical experts at the centre and get some real time advice and decisions to how to save the severely wounded soldier. Research is also going on in the defence to combine both the technologies together where through internet and satellites surgeons and doctors can provide treatment and surgeries to the injured personnel in battlefield with the help of robotic arm from a distance. So, soon we might see man-controlled robots hovering around the battlefield to patch up any wound help save those precious lives.

Going The Distance

This would be a major breakthrough, as it would get rid of the need for doctors and/or their patients to travel vast distances for surgery. Imagine being able to have a machine do surgery on you, while the doctor is far away. It would cut down on waiting times, and connect the world in more ways than it already is. Robotic doctors would be able to be used in 3^rd world countries, where there are not many doctors, in rural areas that are distance challenged, or in times of natural calamities such as floods and bushfires.

The possibilities for tele-medicine are immense, as it could be used to help so many people who aren't lucky enough to have a specialist nearby to treat them. The future of medicine is here with humans and machines working together.