Guide
The indispensability of human beings is becoming more and more obvious in contrast to the advantages of technological development.
Source: Medical Pulse
Author: Xiao Yu
This article is published by the author with the authorization of Medical Pulse, please do not reprint it without authorization.
On January 27, the American journal Science Robotics published a research article detailing the laparoscopic surgery of pigs' soft tissues by intelligent tissue autonomous robots (STAR) without human guidance, which is an important step towards fully automated surgery on humans by robotics.
The above research article is titled Autonomous robotic laparoscopic surgery for intestinal anastomosis, and the author is Axel Krieger, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, et al.
The robot excels at bowel anastomosis, a procedure that requires a high degree of repetitive movement and precision. Connecting the two ends of the intestine is arguably the most challenging step in gastrointestinal surgery, requiring surgeons to suture with a high degree of accuracy and consistency. Even the slightest hand shaking or misalignment can lead to leaks, which can cause catastrophic complications for patients.
Judging from the experimental results, robotic automatic suture (STAR) is much better than pure artificial suture (LAP) and robotic assisted surgery (RAS).
Smart devices and medical treatment are becoming more and more closely integrated is the trend of the times, will general surgeons be gradually eliminated?
How "independent" is this robot?
At present, the vast majority of surgical robots in clinical application are auxiliary or semi-automatic robots, that is, as the mechanical arm of medical personnel, assist in completing surgical operations, or according to preset procedures, independently judge the surgical field or lesion situation, complete or partially complete simple decisions and operations.
STAR further promotes the autonomous development of surgical robots in surgical operations, and it has a novel control system that adjusts surgical plans in real time like human surgeons. This means that surgical robots have begun to develop from "help me do it" to "I do it".
In short, STAR is indeed more "independent" than previous surgical robots.
However, although the article mentions that the robot performed laparoscopic surgery without human guidance, this is a somewhat general and exaggerated statement. Strictly speaking, the robot has completed an "operation" in the surgical process under considerable restrictions, and the overall process is still carried out under the control of human doctors.
That said, the robot is still in the "tool" stage at the moment. The authors of the paper also made it clear that the important purpose of the research results is to reduce the workload of surgeons, improve the consistency of surgical implementation, standardize the surgical process, and do not attempt to directly replace human doctors with this technology.
Beyond technology, there is ethics
Leaving aside the technical aspects, it is difficult to bypass the "ethics" barrier if the development of smart medical devices.
Imagine that the patient, Little C, was accidentally injured in a traffic accident, with a serious forearm injury and a poor vascular nerve condition. The family listened to the doctor's opinion and used a fully mature automatic surgical robot to complete some fine operations, but during the operation, due to the robot program problem, there was a rare medical accident caused by the robot equipment, and the function of the small C limb was seriously damaged.
The question is, who should bear the medical responsibility? Assisting physician or robot manufacturer?
This assumption is not a castle in the air, real life will always be more complicated than imagined, decisions, operations, steps, principles, every step is crucial in surgery. In traditional surgery, these problems are converged on the operator, but when humans and machines need to seek common ground while reserving differences and coordinate operations, although the fully automatic equipment is precise and decisive. But as long as someone is there, it still needs someone to make the final trade-offs and buffers.
Therefore, if you want to replace the surgeon as the "number one" in the operating room, smart medical devices still need to face many challenges.
What does the future hold? Look at medical treatment from the perspective of an "alpha dog"
Although smart medical devices do not yet have the ability to replace surgeons from the current point of view, this does not mean that the future is the same, after all, the lessons of the past are at hand.
Turning the clock back a decade, few would believe that the entire Go world would be completely conquered by an obscure artificial intelligence "alpha dog."
Image source: Photo Network
In everyone's traditional concept, Go is the art of the unity of heaven and man, which contains both sophisticated algorithms and human brilliance, even if the computing power of the machine is far better than that of humans, but the complex ideological layout is not human "alpha dog" can understand?
But in the end, the harsh reality taught people a lesson, and the Go genius Ke Jie lost three games in a row, and he had no power to fight back.
Whether this scene will be repeated in the future for doctors is not impossible. The experience of the Go player's fiasco tells us that the so-called characteristic "intuition" and "inspiration" may be just human wishful thinking narcissism.
As we all know, the growth of doctors is based on theoretical memory and practical training, both of which are the strengths of artificial intelligence, when the database is large enough, the algorithm is advanced enough, and the machine makes more accurate diagnosis and treatment than human doctors. But by that day, will human doctors be eliminated?
Probably not, because technology can't solve all problems, as long as we are still people, some "services" can only be provided by people. Even though the alpha dog's strength has far exceeded that of human Go players, the Go players are not collectively unemployed, and everyone is still more willing to appreciate the two players with limited wisdom "lining up" than the endless "difficult fights" between the two machines.
Moreover, the development of smart medical devices also has great positive significance for doctors. Since the industrial age, the scene of scientific and technological development tools and tools replacing labor force has been continuously staged, which is a necessary step in the development of productive forces.
In clinical medical operations, the indispensability of people is becoming more and more obvious in the comparison of the advantages of technological development, in which medical personnel are the helmsman, and it is also the starting point of the application of new technologies and the guiding target for further development.
The natural advantages of the machine can greatly fill the shortcomings of medical workers, and the application of robots to complete repetitive, in-depth and complex work can reduce the risk of infection and fatigue of doctors and improve surgical safety. Freeing up more time and energy for doctors can increase the amount of diagnosis and treatment, enrich the diagnosis and treatment process, and improve the diagnosis and treatment effect.
Taking a step back, even if artificial intelligence completely replaces doctors, doctors do not have to be sad at all, because by that time, there are few things in the world that humans need to do themselves, and the word "unemployment" is estimated to have withdrawn from the stage of history.
In the future, exploring and broadening the more feasible application areas of intelligent medical treatment will be a new doctor-patient hotspot, and the emergence and development of new things will always be accompanied by controversy and surprises, and we look forward to such improvements and changes.
Editor-in-charge Jingmin