Technical Report Draft 1 (Background + Benefits)

Background

According to the DaVinciSurgery website, the da Vinci surgical system is a robotic-assisted surgical system that enables surgeons to operate “minimally invasive surgery” using sophisticated surgical tools. The da Vinci system consists of 3 separate components. Firstly, the surgeon console presents the surgeon the ability to control the surgical instruments while viewing the surgery in high-definition 3D. Secondly, the patient cart is placed beside the operating bed, embedded with the camera and tools for the surgeons to control. Thirdly, the vision cart is the bridge that communicates between the components and supports the high-definition vision system. 

Even with such sophisticated design and technology, the da Vinci surgical system is still being limited as a master and slave system. This means that the da Vinci surgical system relies on human inputs to process and function. Based on the article “Accidents Happen” (2019), it states that KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital’s (KKH) sees an average of 60 to 70 cases that require stitches each week. With the absence of automated robotic technology, doctors are required to attend to these patients. With such reliance on human intervention even for cases that require small surgeries, it takes a toll on the workload of doctors. This thus decreases their working efficiency which possibily extends the working hours of doctors. According to The Washington Post, the article “Back to extremely long shifts for new surgeons? Study finds few negatives.” (2016) states that the average working hours of doctors fall between 16 to 28 hours per week. Such increased working hours would then affect a doctor's ability to make sound judgement.

Thus, we introduce the concept of incorporating artificial intelligence (AI)into the system. Machine learning is a type of AI that allows computers to self learn through the analysis of patterns without any explicit coding needed. Unlike humans, robots are excellent at seeing patterns off big data and then producing an accurate list of predictions within a very short time span. With the incorporation of AI into the current technology, the system that previously required human intervention can now function on its own. This greatly cuts down the manpower needed for trivial cases ie. stitching.

Benefits

The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) allows the robot to apply machine learning. The robotic hands will be able to learn the procedures sequentially and therefore enables it to perform the procedures semi or fully automatically. 

The implementation of AI also indirectly affects the efficiency of hospitals, especially the Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments. The robotic hands will be able to replace doctors or surgeons with tasks like stitching, freeing them up for other patients that require more attention. This will boost the efficiency of the A&E department of the hospitals which means that more patients can be treated within the same amount of time compared to having doctors or surgeons being there physically to stitch the patients up.

With the implementation of machine learning through AI, the robotic hands will learn and perform procedures in a standardized and sequential manner. The robotic hand will pull the algorithm of the task from a database that it is assigned to perform. This ensures that the procedures performed by the robotic hands are sequential and standardized. Hence, it minimizes the possibilities of errors on tasks made by humans through the implementation of AI. Furthermore, machine learning enables robotic hands to analyze uncertainties such as the dimensions of the wound, for accurate error propagation which further enhances its capabilities.