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Center for Digital Health
Date September 6, 2020
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Improving Surgical Outcomes with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

By Leah Salzano

Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence hold the key to the future of precision-guided surgery.

muragakiEvery time they operate, surgeons are tasked with processing and responding to an overwhelming amount of information all at once.  Though there are many useful devices and equipment that monitor patient vitals, all of these systems operate independently from one another, rather than working together to provide a more cohesive, comprehensive report of what is happening in the patient’s body.   For this reason, doctors and scientists at the Tokyo Women’s Medical University–Waseda University Joint Institute for Advanced Biomedical Sciences (TWIns) have come up with a novel way to perform “precision-guided therapy” within the operating room using robots, AI, and data interoperability (1).

Smart Cyber Operating Theater (SCOT), or Hyper SCOT as it is commonly known by, was invented by neurosurgeon Dr. Yoshihiro Muragaki and his colleagues in Japan.  The idea behind Hyper SCOT is to transform surgery “from an analog process, where standalone equipment is not connected, into a digital process where data are shared,” (2).  Many who have seen this operating room have compared it to the Starship Enterprise in “Star Trek;” yet Hyper SCOT does not exist only as a tribute to science fiction, but as a real, proven solution to improving neurosurgical patient outcomes. In fact, Dr. Muragaki and his team successfully performed a groundbreaking surgery to treat essential tremor, a nerve disorder that causes shaky limbs, using the advanced imaging and collation of data provided by Hyper SCOT (1).

Hyper SCOT uses digital data sharing across a broad range of medical devices in order to provide doctors with a full picture of the patient. Live cameras provide a birds-eye view of the procedure and transmit video feed, as well as real-time imaging and vitals, to remote doctors who can then weigh in on the best course of action. One of the most promising aspects of Hyper SCOT is its ability to bring magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) into the operating room; previously, imaging was only able to be done before and after a procedure. Surgeons can now identify residual tissue from a tumor and address it in real-time, drastically improving outcomes for brain cancer patients. This does, however, mean that physicians must use only MRI-compatible medical equipment and devices within the room (2).

According to Dr. Muragaki, the key to success in creating Hyper SCOT was collaboration and open innovation between academia, public, and private sector healthcare and technology enterprises.  “If one company tried to do this alone, it would want to use its own technology and keep rivals out,” Muragaki says. “That company wouldn’t succeed in integrating all the various technologies,” (2).  Dr. Muragaki’s hope for the future is to bring smart cyber operating theaters to hospitals around the world, and to work towards using the technology for procedures other than brain surgeries.

References:

(1)  Hornyak T. How artificial intelligence is transforming medicine. Japan Today. 2019. https://japantoday.com/category/features/health/how-artificial-intelligence-is-transforming-medicine. Published 9 July 2019. Accessed 17 Mar 2020.

(2)  Brandvoice. Open Innovation In Japan Breaks New Ground In The Operating Room [17 Mar 2020]. Forbes. 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/japan/2019/03/08/open-innovation-in-japan-breaks-new-ground-in-the-operating-room/#3d6f8a2e14a8. Published 8 Mar 2019.

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Improving Surgical Outcomes with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence