Background
Robots and the use of AI first entered the medical scene in the late 1980s to 1990s with namely prosthetics and laparoscopic procedures. Now, as we as humans generate more and more health related data, there arises an issue as the use of these technologies expands in regards to both ethical issues as well as properly harnessing the data we generate to provide a higher and more widespread level of healthcare.
Levels of Autonomy
The role of robotics and AI in medicine is becoming more and more widespread and due to the nature of the industry the possibilities for scenarios and uses are endless. Robots can be used for logistics, such as in pharmacies and delivering supplies-- it is estimate that nurses spend 7% of their time simply looking for things, as well as for performing surgeries. For this reason, it's important to look at it in terms of autonomy.
- No autonomy- the user has complete control, an example being a prosthetic limb.
- Robot assistance- the device provides the patient with assistance with movement or balance support.
- Task authority- there is the ability to perform certain tasks independently, an example being sewing stitches.
- Conditional autonomy- a system is capable of creating their own tasks to perform independently, but is still mostly reliant on a human's decision.
- High autonomy- the device is capable of making decisions under the supervision of qualified doctors.
- Full autonomy- the robot is able to perform an entire surgery as well as a general surgeon without any supervision.
Currently, the FDA is capable of approving levels 1-3. The issue arises is that when we get to level 4 and above, even if some are yet in the realm of science fiction, it likely requires getting the American Board of Surgery in for approval of their abilities.
da Vinci Robot
The da Vinci surgical system is a robotic surgical platform that allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgeries. The FDA cleared it in 2000 to become the first robotic surgical platform commercially available in the U.S. to be used in general laparoscopic surgeries. With the da Vinci, surgeons are able to use just 1-2 cm incisions as opposed to much longer ones without it. There are three parts to the system: a surgeon's console, four interactive robotic arms, and a high performance vision system and EndoWrist instruments. Today, there are over 1,700 systems in hospitals around the world that have treated over 775,000 patients.
IBM Watson
IBM's Watson aims to tackle the issue of reconciling the massive data we are now generating as people with practical applications. The health industry is a $7 trillion industry and medical data--whether that be from clinical trials, research, implanted devices, medical records, and more-- is being created at an exponential rate. Additionally, IBM estimates that 35 cents from every dollar spent on medical care is wasted due to this gap in utilizing data. With Watson Health, the goal is to apply the cloud technology of Watson to help optimize performance, engage consumers, enable effective healthcare, and manage population health.
Sources:
http://uchealth.com/services/robotic-surgery/patient-information/davinci-surgical-system/
https://www.ibm.com/watson/health/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/20/medical_robots_need_autonomy_classifications/
https://neurochangers.com/2012/08/09/the-history-of-medical-robots/
I really enjoyed this tech talk and thought it was interesting how there are six different levels of autonomy. I think that these autonomous robots could be extremely useful in the future of health and medicine when looking at big data and how to collect and process it all in a way that makes it useful and easier to analyze. One problem that I think may arise with these autonomous robots is the level of security. As the field of health and medicine incorporates this technology more and more into treatments, there is an increased level of risk that the technology may be hacked or hijacked and information could be stolen or the robots could be used for malicious practices.
ReplyDeleteThis was probably one of the most interesting tech topics I listened to. There's always the talk about how the advancement in robots will take away from human jobs, yes. But at the same time I think there are specific tasks that these machines can do very well and can ultimately benefit society by creating and distributing them to not only hospitals but to factories etc. Lastly, I thought it was interesting in your discussion about IBM Watson and its cloud storage abilities, and how its goal is to optimize and help engage consumers to help enable effective healthcare.
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