Nasa Is Developing Robots That Could Perform Surgery In Space

The Robots That Could Perform Surgery In SPACE: Tiny Doctor Droids Could Perform Complex Medical Procedures On Astronauts -- Daily Mail

* Prototype has been created by Nebraska-based Virtual Incision and Nasa
* 0.9lb (0.4kg) device has tools that can grab, cauterise and suture tissue
* Its head is fitted with a camera which sends a feed back to control station
* Nasa said astronauts could be trained to use the robot to perform select surgeries on each other

Imagine a miniature robo-surgeon sliding into your body through an incision in your stomach.

Once inside, the robot can expertly manoeuvre its way around the abdominal cavity, which has been filled with gas to make more room for work.

It can then perform procedures such as an emergency appendectomy or perforate a gastric ulcer.

This is the scenario being explored by Nasa in the hope that risky surgical operations in space will someday become a routine matter.

Working in collaboration with Virtual Incision in Lincoln, Nebraska, the space agency has developed a prototype of a remotely-operated fist-sized robot doctor.

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My Comment: They still have a long way to go .... but the advancements are impressive.

The Beginning Of Bioelectronics

Healthcare: Into The Cortex -- Financial Times

Scientific advances on the brain promise to transform the pharmaceutical industry.

Imagine a pharmaceutical company 20 or 30 years from now. Moving beyond conventional drugs that interact biochemically with the body, it will have built a big “bioelectronics” business that treats disease through electrical signalling in the brain and elsewhere.

Neurological problems, from stroke and epilepsy to depression, will be treated through electronic implants into the brain rather than pills or injections. Even diabetes and obesity will be attacked in ways that seem like science fiction today, by sending electrical signals to malfunctioning cells.

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My Comment: An implant inside my brain .... not a comforting thought.

'Epidermal Electronics' Tattoos

Purely medicinal? Tattoos, or 'epidermal electronics’, could be a regular feature at the surgery

'Epidermal Electronics' Tattoos: A Giant Step Forward For Cyborgs -- The Telegraph

A new skin patch that can monitor heart and brain functions could be used to enhance the body’s well-being, reports Roger Highfield.

One day soon, your doctor might prescribe you something that looks like a colourful temporary tattoo. But when you apply it to your skin you’ll end up with more than an interesting pattern. Your epidermis will be coated with a gossamer-thin layer of electronics. In the short term, this tattoo will be used to monitor your well-being. But in the long term it could be used to enhance your body as part of a remarkable new phase in human evolution, one foreseen by Edgar Allen Poe in the 19th century.

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My Comment: Tattoos are not for me.

Telepresence Robots Will Soon Join Doctors On Their Rounds

CtrlWorks' Telepresence Puppet CtrlWorks

Telepresence Robots Will Join Doctors on Their Rounds in Singapore Next Month -- Popular Science

Deploying telepresence robots in a medical setting isn’t exactly a new notion, but a Singapore-based startup is easing the technology into the clinical setting in a clever way. While other telepresence platforms have largely focused on allowing doctors to examine patients and oversee care remotely, CtrlWorks envisions its Puppet as more of a remotely piloted assistant that will reduce doctor workloads, dutifully taking down case notes and filing them in the proper places as a doctor makes his rounds. And next month at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Singapore it will get a chance to prove its value.

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The Rise Of Robodoc

The Acrobot Robot, which helps orthopaedic surgeons
to carry out computer navigated partial knee replacements

From The Independent:

Many operations are becoming less invasive and more efficient due to the growth of cyber-surgery. Nina Lakhani on a British medical success story.

While surgeons are often criticised for their brusque bedside manner, few could accurately be described as robots. This is going to change as surgical consultations increasingly involve robotic systems to help diagnose, plan operations and reassure patients.

The development of robotic systems, both active and passive, is enabling surgeons to use keyhole techniques in hard-to-reach areas not previously thought possible. Britain is at the forefront of many advances. Collaborations between NHS surgeons, universities and private companies enable Britain to develop robotics more quickly and cheaply than North American and European counterparts.

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Growing Body Parts

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Tiny 'Sticking Plaster' Nanoparticles For Broken Nerves Could Provide Spinal Cord Treatment

A new 'sticking plaster' technique could repair damaged spinal cords, helping people to walk again

From The Daily Mail:

Scientists last night raised hopes that microscopic nanoparticles could be injected into the spines of paralysed people to help them walk again.

They have conducted experiments on rats which show that the tiny particles can act as a 'sticking plaster' to repair broken nerves.

When the microscopic spheres, known as micelles, were injected into the tails of paralysed rats, they regained the use of all their limbs.

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Blood Test Offers More Accurate Picture of Health

From Technology Review:

A Seattle company is developing rapid tests for thousands of proteins.

With $30 million in recent financing, a Seattle-based company has launched operations to develop and market inexpensive tests for thousands of blood proteins, offering a comprehensive picture of the health of all the body's organs. The Seattle startup, called Integrated Diagnostics, is developing cheap diagnostics that work in minutes and could be used to detect diseases at early, more treatable stages. The company's technology has been in development for the past nine years in labs at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. The company hopes to provide tests for early diagnosis of neurological disorders and other diseases.

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The Challenge Of Making Real 'Surrogate' Skin

Image from Tech Digest

From Live Science:

The new movie "Surrogates," starring Bruce Willis, depicts a world in which people live through "surries", highly realistic humanoid robots. But without realistic skin, robots will never have that humanlike personal touch, and will not have the degree of social acceptance that robots would need to have to share the world with the rest of us.

A recent paper details research into this area. In "Towards Humanlike Social Touch for Sociable Robotics," John Cabibihan and his fellow scientists detailed the reasons for testing and developing realistic skin for social robots.

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Scientists Make Paralyzed Rats Walk Again After Spinal-cord Injury

A combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again, researchers have discovered. (Credit: iStockphoto/Dmitry Maslov)

From Science Daily:

UCLA researchers have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again while supporting their full weight on a treadmill.

Published Nov. 20 in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience, the findings suggest that the regeneration of severed nerve fibers is not required for paraplegic rats to learn to walk again. The finding may hold implications for human rehabilitation after spinal cord injuries.

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Hospitals Open The Door To Sci-Fi's Medical Robots

From The Independent:

Exhibition reveals huge advances that are turning futuristic fantasies into surgical reality.

From the tiny submarine injected into the human body in the film Fantastic Voyage in 1966, to the hologram Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager in 1995, medical robots have long fuelled the imaginations of science fiction writers.

Now many of those fantasies are coming true and on Tuesday the Royal College of Surgeons will exhibit some of the advances that in just five years could see tiny robots going to work inside patients.

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Bionic Brain Chips Could Overcome Paralysis

Regaining control of the body (Image: Daniel Chang)

From New Scientist:

A MONKEY sits on a bench, wires running from its head and wrist into a small box of electronics. At first the wrist lies limp, but within 10 minutes the monkey begins to flex its muscles and move its hand from side to side. The movements are clumsy, but they are enough to justify a rewarding slug of juice. After all, it shouldn't be able to move its wrist at all.

A nerve connection in the monkey's upper arm had previously been blocked with an anaesthetic that prevented signals travelling from its brain to its wrist, leaving the muscles temporarily paralysed. The monkey was only able to move its arm because the wires and the black box bypassed the broken link.

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Food Dye 'May Ease Spinal Injury'

From The BBC:

A dye similar to that used in sweets may potentially minimise the severity of spinal cord injuries.

A cascade of molecular changes triggered in the hours following an initial injury can cause further severe damage to the spinal cord.

But US researchers found this can be halted by using a dye known as Brilliant Blue G (BBG).

However, rats given the treatment in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study turned blue.

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