Submitted by CARPE DIEM

Thanks to an anonymous CD reader for this comment:

“As remote controlled robots are utilized more and more to do operations it is conceivable that one day a surgeon in Bangalore, India will perform operations on patients located in a Walmart surgical clinic in Mobile, Alabama. The technology has been here for a relatively long time.”

For example, in 2001, surgeons in the U.S. Performed an Operation in France Via Robot.

More recently:

“Northeast Georgia residents needing cardiac surgery will have an innovative new treatment option next year in the region. Officials with Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville said they have received a $1 million gift from an anonymous donor to purchase a da Vinci Surgical System, which can be operated remotely.

The physician actually sits in a different location and operates through a screen, a robot, that can actually enter the chest cavity or the abdominal area, depending on whether they are doing an abdominal area or doing a heart.”

And what about remote robotic surgery for the U.S. soldiers in combat?

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — “Robotic surgery, which could be performed on patients in remote locations such as Iraq while the surgeon is in another location, is feasible despite needing significant mechanical improvements, a surgeon said here.”

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