Portable Robot-Assisted Surgery Master Station
Introduction Robotic telesurgery is a new field with great potential to overhaul the way surgical care is delivered at home, in the field, and to remote or extreme environments. In robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, the operating surgeon uses a robotic interface device (the master) to control a surgical manipulator robot (the slave) to do operating procedures. Surgical robots eliminate the need to have a surgeon next to the patient and therefore enable improved ergonomics, increased dexterity and remote site surgery. However, robotassisted procedures are currently limited to teleoperation with the surgeon located in the same operating room. Technology description Researchers at the University of Washington have invented a portable low-cost surgical master station for teleoperated surgical robots. This device enables a surgeon to operate the surgical robot remotely to do minimally invasive surgery. The console consists of a touch screen with user interface software, a foot pedal interface, haptic devices for remote manipulation and video interface for surgeon's feedback. The entire station is portable and could be moved to anywhere with ease. An exciting aspect of this project is the development of interoperability with different surgical robots through a standard protocol. Allowing different surgical technologies to work together opens the door to new collaborations between doctors. Business opportunity Robotic devices have the potential to be used in more than 3.5 million medical procedures per year in the United States alone. Surgical robots will allow for fewer personnel in the operating room and give doctors the ability to operate on a patient long-distance, thus lowering the cost of health care. In addition to cost efficiency, robotic surgery has several other advantages over conventional surgery, including enhanced precision and reduced trauma to the patient. Commercially available systems for robotic surgery are not yet capable of performing telesurgery. Related Publication“Portable Surgery Master Station for Mobile Robotic Telesurgery.” Proceedings of Robocom 2007, Athens, Greece, October 2007
Type of Offer: Licensing
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