We live in the age of technology, and we are now seeing more and more industries using it. One of these is the medical industry, and it’s already easy to see some of the ways that surgery is changing because of it. That’s what we’re going to be looking at down below, so if you would like to find out more, keep reading.
Robot Assisted Surgery
Robot assisted surgery is a form of minimally invasive surgery. This can help to reduce the variation in performance between doctors and hospitals, ensuring that everyone receives the same level of care.
This is also important because it allows better access to the parts of the body that are typically hard to reach. Due to a machine assisting the procedure, it’s also true to say that it improves the accuracy and precision, as there is no room for human error.
As such, the risk to patients when they get on the table is reduced. In the coming years, we expect to see a rise in the amount of robot assisted surgeries happening, but this depends on a number of factors.
3D Bioprinting Could Reduce Complications With Transplants
It is expected that within the next 20 years or so, 3D bioprinting of organs and tissues is going to be a large part of surgery. This process involves layering living cells on top of each other, which will then create an artificial living tissue.
The artificial tissue or organs are made from the cells of the patient that needs the transplant. This means that the likelihood of rejection is far lower than if it were person-to-person, and should also mean that life-long immunosuppressants are less likely to be needed.
AR and VR For Better Training
AR and VR are already used in order to help train the new team of surgeons. They can use this technology to rehearse their procedures on patient-specific simulations. While this isn’t that common right now, there has been a lot of success with this, so you can be sure that it will become more popular soon.
This can also help connect less experienced surgeons to specialist surgeons. The specialist can support the procedure remotely, sharing their knowledge.
Artificial Intelligence To Make Diagnosis More Precise
AI analyzes a huge amount of data quicker than any human could, spotting anomalies fast. This can also be used to minimize surgical error, as well as the monitoring of patients pre and post operation.
There are also a lot of other uses for AI throughout the medical industry, making is an important development.
Genomic Testing To Improve Cancer Detection And Personalized Medicine
Genomic testing helps to predict inherited disease risk, is useful when it comes to precision medicine, and can even act as a blood test to check for cancer. It leads to a higher diagnosis rate for cancer, and gives doctors more personal information on your health, meaning that you get more personalized medicine.
You should now have a better understanding of five of the ways that surgery is currently changing due to technology. Technology can have a massive positive impact on the medical industry, if people use it safely and sensibly.