Which bodies currently fund research into your topic?
I believe that many organizations fighting against certain illnesses fund research into robotic surgeries. Some examples I found are Cancer Research UK, British Association for Cancer Research, Intuitive Surgical and Health Research Funding.
Also, interesting fact, there is an Austrian Center for Medical Innovation and Technology which is located in Wiener Neustadt. They are researching in the field of robotic surgeries too and they are funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, the COMET Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies and the Federal States of Upper and Lower Austria.
Who do you think should fund research into your topic and why?
I think every countries health department should fund research into this topic because it improves the quality of our lives after surgeries. The costs of after surgical care could be reduced and insurances would not have to pay endlessly for a patient’s recovery. With people recovering quicker from surgeries, companies and employers would not have to wait as long as now until employees would be fit to work again. Surgical robots and research in said field is expensive but I believe that with sufficient funding, there would be huge improvements and ultimately safer surgeries, quicker recovery and lesser costs per surgery.
Does the science in your topic benefit everybody? If so, who does it benefit the most?
Yes, there are many advantages for the patients such as lesser pain, smaller scars, a smaller risk of infections, quicker recovery,... But there are also advantages for the surgeons. Some examples for their benefits are that surgical robots allow them to see their place of surgery from up close, perform precise movements which are crucial for surgeries, balance out tremors which would otherwise mean the end of a surgeons carrier,... With patients recovering quicker, fewer postoperative complications and infections, hospitals can release patients earlier from hospital making room for new patients. Companies could put their employees sooner to work due to their quicker recovery. And so on and so forth.
Overall, I think that patients benefit the most as they have to endure the pain and battle infections with their weakened body. They have to stay in bed forever, taking medication, instead of going back to work or doing things they want to do.
If it does not benefit everybody equally, should society being paying for the research?
Well it does, but even if that were not the case, I still think that as long as more people benefit from it than not, society should fund it. After all even a little funding can make a huge difference.
Find a TED talk in some way related to your topic. Paste the link below.
Did it teach you anything new? If so, which aspects had you not considered before?
In fact, it did. Before watching the TED talk, I was unaware of the long history of surgeries. I never even imagined that people thousands of years back did surgeries as drastic as brain surgeries. To be honest, I also never considered the problems arising with surgeries such as cancer or tumor removals. The idea with the markers is quite brilliant yet it seems so simple. I knew that they could inject it into veins in order to make blood donations or even vaccinations easier. But I was not aware of the fact that you can make a special marker which only connects to a certain kind of cell. I could imagine this would revolutionize the cancer treatment as it gives surgeons the chance to make sure that they removed all of the metastases leaving the body cancer or tumor free. Like Dr. Mohr mentions, this opens up so many possibilities. While lung cancer or prostate cancer belong to those types of cancers that have the highest mortality rate, this could change. Surgeons could simply mark the metastases and follow their roots to the starting point. With the highly developed surgical instruments, surgeons could remove all of the cancer without destroying too much precious tissue surrounding it. And why stop there? By injecting it into the brain, illnesses such as epilepsy could probably be fixed too.
Every area of research has societal factors which limit its progress. How are outside influences impacting research in the field of science you are looking at for your CAJ? Think of as many examples as you can.
Surgical robots are very expensive in their acquisition costs. This could make hospitals or organizations unwilling to invest into robots and their research.
There are always those who do not trust robots because they say they can not understand how robots work therefore they must be bad. And why would you agree in a surgery performed by someone or something you do not trust?
Operating surgical robots is very complicated and needs a lot of practice. Young but especially elder surgeons might be unwilling to invest that much time into it.
Imagine you are leading a team of researchers in your field. How would seek to overcome these societal limitations as much as possible?
I would try to find a way where I can show them that later on surgery robots actually reduce costs and that the advantages of such surgeries outweigh the disadvantages. Furthermore, I would show that these robots essentially just mimic human hand motions. Also people who have successfully undergone a robotic surgery could be asked to speak in favor of this type of surgery. The more, the better. And of course get famous people to agree with me.
Surgeons need to understand that although the training is very time consuming, robotic surgeries open up so many opportunities for surgeries and therefore the surgeons. Plus you could make the training fun, as it is already done by some universities.
Follow this link to the list of CAJ topics.You will also need to open the list of gmail addresses. Which other topics connect, even if only in a small way, to your own topic? If you cannot say whether someone’s topic connects to yours because you do not fully understand what their topic is, then you will need to have a look at their CAJ first. Give me as many topics as you can, but at least three, which connect to your own. When you are finished, click the “share” button and invite those students below to your document (make sure the box “Notify people via e-mail” is checked so that they know you have added them).
First Name
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Surname
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Their topic
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How does it connect to yours?
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Working link to their CAJ
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Fabio
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Nitsche
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AI; bio-hacking
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These enhancements of the human body have to be implanted somehow and how better to do that than by surgical robots? These robots allow surgeons to for instance connect nerves better to implants.
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Natascha
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Ramic
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Neuroscience
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Surgical robots make it easier to perform surgeries especially in areas where human eyes can hardly see anything and cutting movements would be too big and severe. The robot camera can enlarge the video it takes giving surgeons a better few at tiny things even nerves. And while human hand movements are rougher, the surgical robot can transmit them into minute movements.
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Monika
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Toma
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Designer Babies
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This CAJ talks about the creation of designer babies. But what if during the pregnancy complications arise? Such as the wrapping of the umbilical cord around the fetuses neck, a heart malfunction or even Spina Bifida. Now many complications mean either losing the baby or delivering it premature. With surgical robots, surgeons could perform procedures on the baby still inside the womb increasing it’s chances to survive.
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Katharina
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Pelich
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Stem Cells
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Stem cells can be placed by surgical robots on otherwise difficult to reach places such as fetuses which have Spina Bifida. (Actually it’s a combination of my topic, monika’s and your’s.)
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Artur
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Shefer
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Transhumanism
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Pretty much the same connection as with Fabio’s topic. Surgical robots can make more precise movements than human hands making it easier to for instance connect nerves to a prosthesis.
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Bianca
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Stadler
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Robotics
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Both CAJ’s focus on the improvements made on robots.
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Shirin
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Mahrouzadeh
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Paediatric Palliative Care
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A child’s body and it’s organs are much smaller than those of grown ups. Therefore the surgeon’s movements have to be smaller too. This can once again be achieved by using surgical robots. Robotic surgery also lessens postoperative pain, reduces scars and patients usually recover quicker too. All those reasons are good ones for performing surgery with robots.
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Ines
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Mitterhuemer
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Prosthetics
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Same connection as with Fabio’s and Artur’s CAJs.
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Sabrina
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Krassnig
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Doomsday peppers
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Now that we depend on robots to perform surgeries, will they eventually be smart enough to do them on their own and finally rise against humanity?
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