Are ‘satellite surgeons’ the future?

CGTN Europe

‘Satellite surgeons’ could change the face of medicine. Chinese doctors have performed a series of ‘remote surgeries’ using a high-powered satellite.   They were able to operate despite being thousands of kilometers from their patients.   CGTN’s Michael Marillier explains.   #tech #surgery #medicine

Transcript

00:00It's remote working on a whole new level. Doctors at the People's Liberation Army

00:07Hospital conducted five operations in total. The patients were in Beijing but

00:12the surgeons were thousands of kilometers away in three different

00:16cities. They used a robotic system to perform procedures involving the liver,

00:21pancreas and gallbladder. That system relied on a high-speed satellite. The

00:27surgeons movements would be translated into data which would be sent up to the

00:32satellite, then down to the robotic system working on the patient. Feedback

00:37data would then be sent in the opposite direction. All in all the data would

00:42travel nearly 150,000 kilometers. And yet the surgeons could do their jobs as if

00:49they were in the same room as their patients. The technology could connect

00:53patients with surgeons in ways we've never seen before. For example it's

00:58possible that doctors could treat injured soldiers without going anywhere

01:03near the front line. But it's important to remember patients can't undergo these

01:08operations just anywhere. They would still need to be in a facility with

01:12sophisticated infrastructure. There may be some way to go but these operations

01:18suggest that one day a satellite surgeon could save someone's life.

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