Fly Tying Robot

[Marc Martyn]

O.k., now I have seen everything. I wonder what the doctor won when he bet his colleagues he could tie a fly with his robot.

http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Hatche ... paign=1-19

[MrLucky]

An awkward tie job, but cool that it was tied by a surgical robot.

On the other hand, if this robot can't tie a decent looking fly, then do I really want to let it do surgery on me?

[Rooscooter]

The DaVinci and it's counterpart Zeus are amazing machines. In my capacity as an Architect I've had the opportunity to design several hospitals abroad that have installs of one or both platforms. They can perform most "routine" surgeries as well as some of the more complicated ones. Tying a fly isn't what they are programmed for however if the person on the other end can tie a decent fly the robot end should as well.

These machines perform needed surgeries in outlying areas of the world as well as in rural areas of the US. As you can imagine they are very expensive and they require a very sophisticated communications and power system. The room and infrastructure for one of these can cost over 1 Million easily and the machine another 1.5 to 2 Million.

[Marc Martyn]

The DaVinci and it's counterpart Zeus are amazing machines. In my capacity as an Architect I've had the opportunity to design several hospitals abroad that have installs of one or both platforms. They can perform most "routine" surgeries as well as some of the more complicated ones. Tying a fly isn't what they are programmed for however if the person on the other end can tie a decent fly the robot end should as well.

These machines perform needed surgeries in outlying areas of the world as well as in rural areas of the US. As you can imagine they are very expensive and they require a very sophisticated communications and power system. The room and infrastructure for one of these can cost over 1 Million easily and the machine another 1.5 to 2 Million.

Expound on this a bit more since you are familiar with the robot. When and where do they use them and for what reason. I have heard of doctors assisting other doctors during surgery via satellite but never using a robot.

[Rooscooter]

The DaVinci has two main components...the business end if you will, where the surgery takes place and the operators (Surgeon) end. They can be in the same room, adjacent rooms or half way around the world from each other.

Most of the ones that I've designed facilities for are in Africa where Surgeons are few and far between. For example in Calabar Nigeria there are 4 DaVinci's in a 250 Bed Hospital and the Surgeons are in either Cairo, Johannesburg, Paris or Frankfurt. They operate the machines remotely. In the room in Calabar there is an Nurse Anesthetist and other nursing personnel to assist the surgery, however the machine performs the operation directed by the surgeon in a remote location.

Through this system modern healthcare procedures can be administered from a remote location.

(climbing up on to soap box) It's the development of sophisticated systems such as this one and many others that raise the cost of our healthcare. Robotic Surgery, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Cardiac Catheterization, Radiation Therapy, Computed Tomography (CT Scans), Nuclear Medicine, Positive Emission Tomography (PET Scans), Chemo Therapy, Joint Replacements and I could go on, didn't exist in 1980. Almost every one in the US has gone through or will go through one of these procedures before they check out.

Over the last 30 years these diagnostic and treatment systems were invented and implemented using technology discovered or invented largely for the Space or Defense industries. Most are very costly to develop, manufacture and locate and all of that cost trickles down to all of us when we pay our Healthcare Insurance. So next time you hear a a dumb politician comparing inflation adjusted cost of healthcare between 1980 and 2005 (one of the core arguments for the Healthcare Law) and that greed, waste and inefficiencies are the main reason for cost differences remember that most of these very expensive systems/procedures are a fairly recent thing and that they aren't free. If we want 1980 prices are we willing to give all of this up and go back to 1980 level of care? (climbing off soap box).

Here is a photo of the two major components: