USA: NEW YORK DOCTORS CLAIM TO HAVE MADE ROBOTIC HISTORY BY USING A NEWLY DEVELOPED ROBOT-NURSE TO ASSIST THEM IN THE OPERATING ROOM

Record ID: 657609

  • Title: USA: NEW YORK DOCTORS CLAIM TO HAVE MADE ROBOTIC HISTORY BY USING A NEWLY DEVELOPED ROBOT-NURSE TO ASSIST THEM IN THE OPERATING ROOM
  • Date: 16th June 2005
  • Summary: (L!WE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JUNE 16, 2005) (REUTERS) DR. TREAT DEMONSTRATING THE USE OF "PENELOPE" TO THE MEDIA "PENELOPE" BEING PHOTOGRAPHED
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Health,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVAB9VFR80KIX4MT4PPQW3C44PG9
  • Story Text: New York doctors claim to have made robotic history by using a newly developed robot-nurse to assist them in the operating room.
    Doctors at New York City's Presbyterian Hospital/ The Allen Pavilion claimed to have used a robot for the first time as an independent assistant, in a surgery performed on Thursday (June 16, 2005).
    The robot-nurse, called "Penelope Surgical Instrument Server (SIS)" was used to handle and retrieve surgical instruments in the removal of a benign tumour in the forearm of Iris Lopez, a 37-year-old woman from the Bronx.
    "Penelope", named after an epic Greek character, is designed and developed by Robotic Surgical Tech, Inc.

    (RST), a New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center spin-off company founded by Dr.
    Michael Treat in 2002. Dr. Treat is also an attending surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion and he headed a press conference about "Penelope", held on the same day of the operation.
    "I mean we'd had computers in the OR (Operating Room) before, near the OR, information is part of what we do but this is kind of the first time I think that a machine in a sense stepped up to the operating table and joined us humans, or we humans, as people who are delivering surgical care. I think you know the best robot stories are the ones where there's a kind of partnership between you know the machine and the people, like R2 - D2 and Luke Skywalker, that sort of thing and I think that's what we've got here,"
    said Dr. Treat.
    According to the surgical team that did the procedure, "Penelope" performed all of its assigned functions properly. The team maintains that while robots have been used in the operating room as tools for the surgeon to improve capability and accuracy, this is the first time a robot has functioned as an independent assistant, taking commands and performing actions independently based on the surgeon's instruction.
    Scrub Nurse, Doreen Taliaferro, who was part of the surgical team that operated on Lopez on Thursday morning, spoke on behalf of all nurses when she said, "By having Penelope, the instrumentation was monitored and it was handled. So, it allowed me more time to spend time with my patient and my surgical team. Robots have been invented in the past to assist doctors in surgery. But it took a doctor like Michael Treat to invent a robot to assist a nurse and I say - kudos to him."
    Dr. Spencer Amory, FACS, director of surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion, explained how Penelope made the task of doctors and nurses easier during surgery.
    "What we saw today in the operating room is that Penelope can handle the task of managing the surgical instruments. She will have the additional capability of keeping a real time count of every instrument used in the operating room. This is a critical task for the entire surgical team and in so doing, handling the instruments and keeping track, and keeping count, we envision that Penelope will relieve us - the surgical team of some of the repetitive tasks that otherwise would consume a lot of our time and energy," he said.
    Questions were raised by the media about whether Penelope could also be used in more critical surgeries, such as those involving malignant tumours, to which doctors replied that it certainly could.
    In addition, when the surgeon lays the instrument back down, the robot uses digital cameras and advanced image processing software to recognize it and return it to its proper position. Penelope also has software that can help her predict what instrument the surgeon may need next.
    The robot, funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), is equipped with voice recognition software, allowing the surgeon to ask for an instrument in a normal manner.
    The surgeons at the press conference did confess though that Penelope too can make mistakes and there is a chance that she could pass the wrong instrument at occasions.
    "Penelope" is the only one of its kind and its makers have not made any duplicates.
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