It is easy to be unaware of how far we have come in terms of medical technology when most popular technological media outlets are almost always concerned with consumer tech. From virtual reality to robotics, there is a stupendous amount of technology available to medical teams today that make previously complicated surgeries a breeze.
MARVEL
Although it doesn’t have anything to do with Marvel Comics and is simply is an abbreviation for Multi-Angle Rear-Viewing Endoscopic Tool, one has to wonder why this joint development by Skull Base Institute and NASA was named MARVEL instead of MARVET!
Then again, an endoscope with a rotating tip, fitted with 3D cameras, which allows brain surgeons to get an actual three-dimensional view of the brain tumor they are trying to operate on, is nothing short of being a marvel of modern medical technology, deserving of the name MARVEL.
AI-Powered Surgical Robots
Robotic surgery is not a new introduction by any means, but it needed to be perfected. Thanks to the incorporation of artificial intelligence and the use of specially designed parts, surgical robots are now becoming smarter and better at taking lifesaving micro-decisions and stopping life-threatening errors. The precise materials used in these surgical robots – such as tungsten wire for example – have also come a long way in recent years. A high level of flexibility and resistance is needed for robots that are used in complex operations and therefore robotic cables have to be of the highest standard.
They essentially eliminate the human error factor from surgery, but a surgeon is always in control of making the major decisions. If there was just one example of human intelligence, artificial intelligence and mechanical perfection bundled into one lifesaving invention, this would be it.
VR Surgical Practice
How is a young heart surgeon supposed to get the experience without actually operating on someone for the first time? This is a paradoxical situation because that would put the life of the patient in more danger than it needs to be in, and yet, new lines of surgeons must start somewhere, or rather on someone!
VR largely reduces the chances of something going wrong when a surgical student takes up the scalpel and puts it to use on a patient for the first time, because the surgical student has already practiced the exact same scenario a hundred times or more in virtual reality simulations.
Although it isn’t the same, there is no doubt how much more confident the new surgeon will feel after getting as much practice as he/she needed, without risking any lives in the process.
Why Do Things Still Go Wrong?
In light of all the breakthroughs in medical science that we have seen recently, one would think that surgeries would go the way they should, nearly all the time. Unfortunately, that is not the situation, at least not yet.
Earlier in May, Cross Country Healthcare from Boca Raton had to pay $30.6 million to settle a medical malpractice lawsuit filed against them in 2013.
If you or anyone close to you has suffered due to medical malpractice in any form, especially during or after surgery, do not hesitate to call up your Boca Raton personal injury lawyer, because it can happen even amidst all this cutting edge technology available today. Sibley Dolman offers free consultation and if you don’t win the lawsuit, no fees are payable to the personal injury lawyer either.
Sometimes, it’s just nobody’s fault, and the patient’s body reacts to the surgical procedures and medications in a completely different way that deviates from the norm expected. The body is unpredictable and that factor will always be there, although we are getting very close to placing countermeasures for even such unpredictable scenarios in the operating theater, thanks to rapidly improving medical technology.
