[Medicine] Minimally Invasive Surgery and Medical Robot “HuaTuo” May Become Standard Equipment by 2020

[Medicine] Minimally Invasive Surgery and Medical Robot “HuaTuo” May Become Standard Equipment by 2020 (Chinese Version)

China Times E-paper & BCC (2011/11/20) As part of the exhibition “Technologies of the Future” taking place at National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Show Chwan Health Care System presented the latest prototype of its minimally invasive surgery and medical robot “HuaTuo Robot” on November 20. The robot aims at providing advanced surgery assistances for the surgeons, reducing the risk and medical cost as well as lifting the medical quality during the operations.

The principal investigator of the project “HuaTuo Robot” Dr. Hsiao-wei TANG said, the robot can contribute quick and accurate medial practices so that with it a great deal of human resources and training cost especially the waste of time, can be reduced.

TANG said, taking HwaTuo, for example, with the addition of a laparoscope support module and the human-machine interface, the robot can totally replace a nurse in a minimally invasive surgery.

TANG continued, the applications of robots to medical practices had been rapidly growing. He expected by 2020 the medical robots will become standard equipment in operation room. Maybe at that time, doctors will not have to conduct the practice by her- or himself. They can simply complete a simple operation by giving instructions to the robots. 。

Asian Institute of TeleSurgery under Taiwan Branch of Research Institute against Digestive Cancer (IRCAD AITS Taiwan) was founded in 2008 under the cooperation of Show Chwan Health Care System and EITS (European Institute of TeleSurgery). The institute offered intensive courses and practice training on minimally invasive clinics and tried to advance the relevant technology in Taiwan. So far, about 2500 doctors had been trained and eighty percent of which was from Taiwan.

TANG added, the European robot “da Vinci” was very expensive, so now there were only six or seven ones in Taiwan. TANG wished that “HwaTuo,” the result of the cooperation of “HwaTuo Robot” project and AITS, which may make the medical and surgery robotics technologically rooted and producible in Taiwan, could replace “da Vinci” and widely spread in the future.


Reference:
China Times E-paper 2011/11/20 (Chinese)
BCC 2011/11/20 (Chinese)

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National Science Council International Cooperation Sci-Tech Newsbrief
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