Overcoming barriers to wider adoption of mobile telerobotic surgery

Abstract

A portable robotic telesurgery network could remove the geographic disparity of surgical care and provide expert surgical support for first responders to traumatic injury. This is particularly relevant to battlefield medicine where surgical intervention is currently not available to the most perilous fighting circumstances. Similar utility applies to the peacetime healthcare mission. The authors identify the potential advantage to healthcare from a mobile robotic telesurgery system and specify barriers to the employability and acceptance of such a system. This presentation will describe a collaborative effort to design and develop one or more portable robotic systems for telesurgery and develop those systems through successful animal trials. Recent advances in engineering, computer science and clinical technologies have enabled prototypes of portable robotic surgical platforms. Specific challenges remain before a working platform is suitable for animal trials, such as the inclusion of image-guidance and automated tasks