THE FUTURE
OF MEDICINE
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Trauma Center: Under the Knife is set in the year 2018, when medical science has advanced enough to virtually eliminate any disease.
In the game, players perform complex operations using
the touch screen technology of the Nintendo DS. In the real world,
technology is helping to play an increasingly important role in
medicine.
As you can see in the following cases, it seems that
doctors not only have to be skilled surgeons; they now have to be good
with joysticks too!
- In 2001, doctors removed the gall bladder
of a 68-year-old woman in France using a robotic surgical system they
operated by remote control from New York!
- In 2004, a trial
conducted at a London hospital found that a robotic hand was more
accurate than a real surgeon’s. Plus, unlike a human hand, a robot’s is
not prone to tremors. Even the best doctors get nervous sometimes!
- A robotic surgeon featured in the Bond movie Die Another Day was not a
prop, it was a real piece of equipment called 'Da Vinci' used in modern
hospital operations.
- Using non-invasive ‘keyhole surgery’, a
heart bypass operation requires only three small incisions, each the
width of a pencil, instead of opening the patient’s entire chest –
greatly reducing their recovery time.
- Some robotic surgical
devices employ a voice recognition system so that the doctor can speak
commands to the computer while his hands are busy. Not unlike the
Nintendo DS microphone!
- American scientists are currently
developing tiny radio-controlled robots, about 15mm in diameter, to
perform operations from inside the body.
- Computer simulators
now allow surgeons to practice operations before entering the theatre.
Patient's organs are scanned and reproduced in 3D graphics, which a
surgeon can operate on virtually using a type of joystick. The surgeon
is even awarded a 'score' at the end!
- A similar medical
simulator reproduces the sense of touch, so trainee surgeons can
actually feel the pressure of a virtual scalpel on simulated skin.
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