Video Transcript
Full Speech Video: Speaking to Inform
“Medical Robots: From Science Fiction to Science Fact”
(NeedsImprovement)
So I was really cramped ’cause I was studying for a calculus exam last night so this didn’t necessarily get done, but let’s just see how it goes, okay?
Basically, as a kid, I watched Star Wars a lot and I definitely loved seeing all the different kinds of robots there. So now that I want to be a doctor, I thought about looking into robots in medicine and you definitely see them in the hospitals all the time, so I thoughtthat would be a good topic.
I also heard about a woman in New Jersey who had a kidney transplant operation done by a robot. Except there was a live surgeon that powered the robot, so they did it together.
First thought, there are orderly robots that, well, they carry stuff around the hospital, basically. Here’s a picture of one. It’s kind of like a square R2-D2, as you can see. Mark Weigel says these robots are fast and efficient, and they save hospitals a ton of time. So obviously that’s important.
They use invisible light beams to get around. These beams are called light whiskers. But because they’re invisible, I actually can’t show you a picture of them, unfortunately. But I’m sure they’re pretty cool still. I can tell you though that the robots communicate with each other so they can actually figure out how to get around the hospital efficiently.
The next robot is the remote-presence robots, and they are different than orderly robots. They actually let doctors see patients and that’s when the doctor isn’t there. Normally, they can’t obviously, but the doctor’s not there, they can still communicate. The doctor uses a camera to see the patient and then the patient can see the doctor on the screen—and actually you can see from these photographs that this is a remote presence robot kind of like Skype on wheels so they can communicate.
These robots are actually really popular right now as well. I found a magazine called Hospital Management, and it said remote-presence robots are used in hundreds of hospitals. So obviously there is a trend in using these machines and it is quite useful.
My favorite robot though is the daVinci. It’s named after the famous Italian painter. It’s used for surgeries. I actually had a picture specifically of the robot, but I couldn’t find it this morning when I double-checked, and obviously I’m here now and didn’t have time. But it’s definitely cool, the robot and it’s got a lot of arms, and it kind of looks like an octopus, like Dr. Octopus almost, and it basically is the surgery machine.
According to an article I read, the doctor moves the arms from the terminal using a kind of controller and he actually uses, like, 3-D imaging as well, so it’s sort of like playing X-Box or Halo on a 3-D TV, so it’s probably fun. But the doctor himself doesn’t ever touch the patient, only the robot touches the patient.
In conclusion, that’s my speech. I hope you see why I find robots so interesting. They’re definitely changing medicine and I’m sure they will all the way in the future for years to come. Thanks for listening.