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cmcewen t1_j9dacjg wrote

Reply to comment by jazzageguy in Which medical specialties are future proof? by MeronDC

I do robotic surgery.

As it stands, the robot does not make any decisions or do anything at all. It purely does the movement we do with our hands. Sort of like a controller to a video game. That’s all it is.

So for it to make decisions is a massive step. But who knows! Maybe some day!

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jazzageguy t1_j9dbqop wrote

Well yeah, that's why I said "tools" currently. But is there no slippery slope apparent, whereby it assumes more and more functions, e.g., opening, closing, handing you instruments, etc?

Everything you do is predicated on a base of knowledge and experience, right? Is it inconceivable that some and eventually all of that knowledge and experience could reside in an AI database, with the obvious advantages of being continuously updated, and available to practitioners outside the developed-world mainstream of medical information?

With both lower- and higher-level functions increasingly automated.... well, the logical conclusion suggests itself.

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cmcewen t1_j9dcg74 wrote

If I know one thing it would be to never assume we know what is possible in the future.

But I can safely say that AI and robotics is not anywhere close to autonomous surgery right now. But who knows in 30 years where things will be.

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jazzageguy t1_j9dcwog wrote

I hope it's not rude to say this to a surgeon, but in 30 years I very much hope for surgery to be rare, and for most diseases to be prevented and/or treated by genetic manipulation. Future generations will look at surgery as we look at bloodletting.

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jazzageguy t1_j9dde7m wrote

By "diseases" I include those of aging, and aging itself. I don't see why cell death should be the norm after we figure out how to keep cells healthy. I think the present human lifespan is a historical accident, limited because in the resource-limited past we had to make room for new generations, and the idea of a finite lifespan has, so to say, outlived its usefulness.

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cmcewen t1_j9dft2y wrote

No offense taken. I spend half my day talking people out of surgery

I suspect There will always be surgery. Some problems are simply a mechanical problem that can’t be fixed any other way. How can a hernia be fixed without surgery? It’s a structural issue. How can dead bowel be fixed without removing it?

Surgery will always be a component, but you’re right that it’ll always be changing. And we already do much less surgery on people than we used to and we use minimally invasive techniques.

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jazzageguy t1_j9dgina wrote

I didn't say NO surgery. Do we really do less than before? I hadn't known that.

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