I once had heard that astronauts had to have their appendix removed before venturing into the far yonder of space. With technology like this, maybe thay can keep it until it's ready to come out. I would imagine that it would take several of these robots working in coordinated fashion to complete an OR case. After all, a one handed surgeon really is not that useful.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska are developing a lipstick-sized robot that can be controlled from thousands of miles away, with the goal of using the bot as a remote-operated “doctor,” able to be inserted into an incision to perform surgery. According to the developer, Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov, the bots have already been successfully tested on animals, and may be used by NASA as early as next spring. For NASA to use the bots in space, however, they would have to be controlled by astronauts, rather than Earth-based doctors. We can imagine that at least some astronauts might balk at the process of inserting one of these and telling it what to do — though we assume that Dr. Chandra, er, Oleynikov has a way to shut it down in an emergency.
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