How robots could assist surgeons and improve patient outcomes

Medical Xpress November 1, 2024
Rachel Leven, University of California - Berkeley

Robots could soon play a larger role in surgery thanks to recent AI developments, experts say, in a Science Robotics paper.

Advances in generative AI and other areas could enable robots to assist human surgeons during certain tasks that require significant dexterity like suturing. Under an “Augmented Dexterity” approach, a human surgeon would closely oversee the robot‘s work and take over if needed.

“A surgeon’s dexterity often separates the good surgeons from the great ones,” wrote Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley’s William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Chair in Engineering, and Gary Guthart, Intuitive Surgical’s chief executive officer.

“Augmented Dexterity has potential to elevate good surgeons to the level of the best surgeons, which could support faster and more reliable surgery.”

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