PUBLIC TALK: Surgical robots � What they can and can�t do, what are they for, and the future

A public lecture by Kiyoyuki Chinzei, Deputy Director of Health Research, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan and 2019 UWA Robert and Maude Gledden Senior Visiting Fellow.

Surgical robots are one of the top hi-tech medical gadgets of the day. Developed in early 1990s, the world market now reaches 4 billion USD/year, expanding 10-20 % annually. Followers of the dominant ‘da Vinci Surgical System’ are increasing as the patents of the Silicon Valley based giant Intuitive Surgical expire. Subsequently many new types of surgical robots are appearing, moving us from research to enterprise.

However, the truth is that virtually all of the current available gadgets are not in fact robots - in the sense that they do not do surgery on their own - and no new surgical techniques have been made possible by the introduction of surgical robots. Large numbers of research studies about clinical outcomes are published – some are positive, some are not. Given this situtation, what then are surgical robots for? And, what is their attraction for surgeons and patients?

This lecture will give an overview of the current state of surgical robots, describing currently available systems that use robotic technology, as well as some ongoing R&D projects in multiple medical fields. Professor Chinzei will review clinical papers on the impacts of surgical robots, and outline some of technical challenges faced by the research community.