Remote health care: Robotics, automation, and the future
As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, health-care innovation has been at an all-time high. Many businesses are reexamining how they might integrate new tools and processes in their practises, as a result, there is a heightened focus on technology and how it can assist in improving patient care and providing a better healthcare experience.
Robotics is one of the most exciting advancements in the field of interventional cardiology. Despite the fact that the technology has been around for several years, it is critical as we begin to consider the future of patient care. During my training at the University of Washington, I first saw the advantages of robotic-assisted surgeries.Following my fellowship training, I made it a high goal to work for a company that either had a robot or was willing to build a robotics programme.
Current practices in robotics and automation
Recently, robotic gadgets have progressed even farther, with some robots now possessing artificial intelligence capabilities. Others have included automated movements that mimic competent interventionalists' manual approaches, which can aid in negotiating tortuous anatomy, crossing tight lesions, and adjusting devices during procedures. Furthermore, these robots allow us to conduct treatments with greater precision, lowering the risk of a stent being misplaced. Perfecting the first operation, like many elements of interventional cardiology, minimises the likelihood of a patient requiring more procedures and the accompanying medical expenditures. Our margin of error is millimetres, and a fraction of a millimetre can mean the difference between a successful stent placement and the need for more stents or a repeat treatment.
Automated movements are especially helpful in delivering gear in the majority of robotic-assisted cases I conduct – I can easily get balloons and stents around the C-shaped bend in the right coronary artery from the cockpit, just like I could if I were at the table. This implies that, in addition to assuring precision, I'll be shielded from the radiation that interventional cardiologists are exposed to on a regular basis.Many teams in the interventional field are focusing on creating safe working circumstances and encouraging good teamwork and longevity, and robotics is one of the many components that can contribute to a radiation safety-based culture.
Developing robotics teams for the future
Anyone who works in the cath lab knows how important collaboration is. However, while doing robotic-assisted surgeries, it is very critical. Because the physician may not be within speaking distance of the nurses and technicians depending on where the interventional workspace is located, many teams use ways to communicate successfully when they are not in the same room, such as wearing a headset.We must always be ten steps ahead of the game, considering things like more wiring, imaging, dilation, and more, as well as how to maintain a consistent, efficient workflow when we aren't all in the same room.
While this is relevant to the types of robotic-assisted treatments that are currently being performed in hospitals around the world, it is also critical to the future of remote robotic procedures. Doctors may just a few feet away in the cockpit for present interventions, but in the future, they could be hundreds or thousands of kilometers distant — even in hospitals across the country. In fact, a physician in India performed the first remote, robotic-assisted surgery on a patient from a distance of 20 miles in December 2018.One of the most essential use cases for this capability in the future is to assist patients in remote places in receiving treatment, which is now a huge difficulty in regions where health care is difficult to come by or where specialist care is lacking.
Currently, 15 percent of Americans (46 million people) reside in rural areas, while those who live in metropolitan areas are more likely to die of cancer, respiratory disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that patients with acute myocardial infarction in rural versus urban hospitals were less likely to undergo cardiac catheterization (49.7% versus 63.6%), percutaneous coronary intervention (42.1 percent versus 45.7 percent), or coronary artery bypass graft (9.0% versus 10.2%) within 30 days.
The adoption of remote, robotic-assisted operations can help to close the gap. Consider a situation in which a robot is stationed at a local hospital and a trained operator is stationed at a different organisation in a major city. In that situation, the doctor might do a remote procedure on the rural patient, ensuring that they receive the timely, precise, and specialized care they require. As a physician, my first priority is to ensure that as many patients as possible receive the best possible treatment, so I'm particularly enthusiastic about the future of robotics and automation, and how it has the potential to improve the level and speed of cardiac care regardless of a patient's location.