With an estimated value of $40 billion to healthcare, robots can analyze data from pre-op medical records to guide a surgeon’s instrument during surgery, which can lead to a 21% reduction in a patient’s hospital stay. Robot-assisted surgery is considered “minimally invasive” so patients won’t need to heal from large incisions.
Via artificial intelligence, robots can use data from past operations to inform new surgical techniques. The positive results are indeed promising. One study that involved 379 orthopedic patients found that AI-assisted robotic procedure resulted in five times fewer complications compared to surgeons operating alone. A robot was used on an eye surgery for the first time, and the most advanced surgical robot, the Da Vinci allows doctors to perform complex procedures with greater control than conventional approaches. Heart surgeons are assisted Heartlander, a miniature robot, that enters a small incision on the chest to perform mapping and therapy over the surface of the heart.
