Explosion of Robotics in Healthcare

Abstract

Given all of the potential entrees for robotic devices to enter the healthcare field, it is interesting that the first documented application was in surgery in 1983. The “Arthrobot,” developed by Dr. James McEwen, Geof Auchinlek, and Dr. Brian Day at the University of British Columbia, was used to assist in the positioning of a patient's leg during an orthopedic surgery. Arthrobot could manipulate and hold the leg in an exact position to support the incisions and bone cutting that would be performed by the surgeon. A second more interventional case of robotic surgery assistance was the 1985 conversion of the PUMA 560 industrial robot to assist with a brain biopsy. The PUMA used its mechanical accuracy to insert a biopsy needle at a precise angle, to a specific depth, and extract a brain tissue sample backward along the same path achieving a sample location accuracy of 0.05 mm. These early cases opened the doors for an explosion of the technology that would expand to a multi-billion-dollar industry over the next three decades.

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