One of the coolest things about surgery are the robots.
The Da Vinci Robot is one of the most well-known robots. It’s a multipurpose robot with 4 arms and controlled by the surgeon who first get’s the arms set up in the right position relative to the patient, then enters a station that straight up looks like an video game arcade booth. At the station, the doc grabs two handhelds and looks into a port where they are now controlling the robot. It looks like they are now playing a more sophisticated game of operation –you know, the game you play as a kid– except the stake are higher. (image of the da vinci set up below)
While on my rotations, I’ve personally seen the da vinci use for several hysterectomy cases (i.e., surgically removal of the uterus) and a pneumothorax case (i.e., fixing a hole in the lung(s)). I still remember how amazing it was the first several times seeing the robot in use. Seriously futuristic.
The Da Vinci Robot was created by a company called Intuitive Surgical with a rich history and a lot of pivoting that eventually brought them to where they are today. Started by 2 doctors and an engineer, the original idea for a multi purpose surgical robot was conceived in a Stanford Innovative lab that went on to create a bunch of other cool things (e.g., they create Latex, the mathmatical formating language).
Most interesting to me was that the idea for the robot was promoted by the government group Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) who initially commissioned the Stanford group to make technology that would allow remote surgeries on soldiers on the front lines. Keep in mind, this was back in the 1980’s. We still don’t have that technology today lol.
There is a lot more that could be said about the company behind the Da Vinci Robot but since my friend Eric –also a med student– and I made a podcast episode dedicated to this topic, I thought I’d just attached it here. As a side note, Eric and I started a podcast where we talk about the most innovative medical technologies. It’s been a lot of fun to do because whenever we hang out, we talk about this stuff anyway, so we thought why not make this into a podcast? Anyway, hope you enjoy it!
