For the first time in decades of robots helping perform surgeries, researchers have trained the technology to learn from videos and self-correct, according to a Dec. 30 report from The Washington Post.
A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Stanford (Calif.) University led this effort. The videos featured other surgical robots performing tasks on practice suture pads. The robots were then tested to perform the same procedure in pork or chicken, according to the Post.
By teaching robots to imitate videos, there should be less effort required to program surgical robots, the researchers said. Also, the trained robots fixed mistakes, such as dropping a needle, without needing prompting.
Nearly four decades after the first robot assisted in an operating room, the research team presented these findings at the Conference on Robot Learning in November, which was held in Germany. Their research is also undergoing review for a journal publication.
The team could talk to the robots — made by medical technology company Intuitive — "like you would to a surgical resident," according to Ji Woong "Brian" Kim, PhD, a researcher part of the Johns Hopkins team.
"You can say things like, 'Do this task.' You can also say things like, 'Move left' and 'Move right,'" Dr. Kim told the Post.
The top concerns are security and liability, according to the researchers. But this initiative still needs to go through clinical trials for safety and efficacy, plus receive an FDA approval, before becoming commonplace in hospitals.