Having physician-guided robots operate patients has now become a common feature at the majority of renowned hospitals. This could possibly imply that the next generation robot could eliminate an amazing element from the hospital scenario – the doctor.
Bioengineers of the Duke University carried out feasibility studies which have showed that a robot, without any kind of human assistance, has the capacity to locate a man-made or phantom, cut simulated human organs, direct a device to the lesion as well as take several samples during one single session. This has lead researchers to believe that as technology advances with time, independent robots could one day carry out many more straight forward surgical tasks.
Kaicheng Liang, an ex-student in the laboratory of Stephen Smith who is actually the director of the Duke University Ultrasound Transducer Group at the Pratt School of Engineering as well as the lead member of the research team said that earlier this year they illustrated that a robot guided by artificial intelligence can by itself situate simulated calcifications and cysts found in simulated breast tissue with a high degree of accuracy and repeatability. They have been able to show that the robot is able to sample up to eight diverse spots in simulated human prostate tissue.
The results of the Duke research have appeared in the recent issue of the journal Ultrasonic Imaging. The results of Duke’s team regarding simulated breast tissue were described in an earlier study in the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology in January. Whole turkey breasts were made use of in both experiments. Raw turkey breast are usually used in medical research as the tissue bears a close resemblance to that of human beings in terms of texture and density. Furthermore it seems to be similar when it is scanned by ultrasound.
The team of researchers from Duke associated a “souped-up” version of an actual robot arm along with an ultrasound system of its peculiar design. The ultrasound works as the robot’s “eyes” in order to collect information from its scan and situating its target. The robot is controlled by an artificial intelligence program instead of a physician as in normal cases. The artificial intelligence program takes the real-time three dimensional data, processes it and subsequently gives specific commands to the robot to perform. The robot is equipped with a mechanical “hand” that allows it to manipulate the same biopsy plunger device which is used by physicians so as to reach a lesion and take samples.
During the recent series of experiments, the robot successfully directed the plunger to eight different places on the simulated prostate tissue in 93 percent of its tries. According to Smith this is indeed important as multiple samples can also establish the extent of any lesion.
Smith is of view that regular medical procedures like biopsies in other tissues in the human body will be carried out with the least human guidance in the future, and with more convenience and less charge to the patients.
A significant challenge that needs to be overcome is the speed that the data us acquired and processed despite the fact that the researchers are positive that quicker processors and improved algorithms will be able to address this problem. In accordance to the researchers in order to be useful clinically, all the actions of the robot would require to be in real time.
Smith stated that one of the attractiveness of this system is in the fact that the each and every hardware component is already on the market. The researches firmly believe that this is merely the initial step in demonstrating that with a few changes, systems like this can be made without the need to build up a novel technology from scratch.
These recent experiments have been possible due to the advances that have been made in ultrasound, by producing thorough three dimensional moving images instantaneously. The team from Duke has an extensive track record of altering conventional 2-D ultrasound, such as those used to picture babies in utero, into the more complex 3-D scans. This technique was invented by the Duke lab in the year 1991.
Smith stated that they are actually experimenting the robot on a human mannequin that is seated at the examining table. The breast of the human mannequin is confined in a rigid bra cup. The breast that is composed of turkey breast tissue has an embedded grape in order to simulate a lesion. Smith declares that their next step would consist moving to a human breast that has been excised.
Source: Science Daily
Sun, Jul 25, 2010
Bioscience