The Pros And Cons Of The Da Vinci System

In the 21st century, medicine and technology share a symbiotic relationship, giving birth to a multitude of innovations that serve to benefit humanity as a whole. From electronic patient databases to nuclear medicine, technology has enabled health care to be at the peak of its success. More so, technology is playing a revolutionizing role in the surgical discipline through the rise of surgical robots. In fact, the approval of the Da Vinci Robotic Surgical System by the FDA in 2000 is what specifically initiated the practice and implementation of robot-assisted surgery. In a nutshell, the Da Vinci System enables surgeons to surpass the physical limitations of the human hand by efficiently piloting an entire surgery from the comfort of a

With an approximate price tag of a couple million dollars, only select research institutions and university hospitals have been able to utilize this technology. In fact, a majority of these institutions have been using this surgical system for only clinical trial purposes due to the novelty of this technique. It is also important to remember that with the technology right now, the judgement of a robotic mechanism still cannot compare to the judgement of a human being. Each patient has unique medical conditions and slight differences in anatomical structure, which may require different surgical approaches that the Da Vinci System may not be capable of performing yet. Different perspectives like this prove how the Da Vinci Surgical System is still a work in progress currently. However, analyzing the disadvantages of this innovation will ultimately serve to improve the advantages of this technology in the long

Notably, the Da Vinci System is projected to play a significant role within military medicine. Through collaboration with NASA and Stanford Research Institute, a special project is being designed to apply the Da Vinci Surgical System within the military environment in order to reduce the amount of fatalities. The overall vision for this project is to upgrade the Da Vinci System to a more adaptable and mobile form, known as telesurgery. Telesurgery is a type of remote surgery where the surgeon does not physically have to be in the same room as the patient to control the surgery. This innovative concept is extremely beneficial because wounded soldiers can immediately receive surgical attention without having to physically see a surgeon at the medical base center, while the surgeon won’t physically have to be near the battle field to perform the surgery either. Nonetheless, as promising as this innovation may sound, it is still in its early stages of development and not nearly as