Latest news with #AxelKrieger
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
Experimental surgical robot performs gallbladder procedure autonomously
Bengaluru: An experimental AI-guided robot can autonomously perform a delicate, complicated phase of a common gallbladder operation , marking a major step toward automated medical procedures, researchers said on Wednesday. Existing surgical robots are remotely controlled by surgeons. The new system uses artificial intelligence to make independent decisions and adapts to unexpected complications during operations, said Axel Krieger of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the research. He likened it to an autonomous vehicle that can "navigate any road, in any condition, responding intelligently to whatever it encounters." "This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to ones that truly understand surgical procedures," he said. The SRT-H robot was trained via an AI framework known as language-guided imitation learning, using videos of surgeons performing gallbladder removal surgeries on pig cadavers, the researchers reported in Science Robotics. The robot was tested on eight varying sets of pig gallbladders and livers that had been removed from the animals. Separating the gallbladder from the liver takes several minutes and involves "diverse tool use, including grabbing, clipping, and cutting - skills common in real surgical procedures," along with decision-making and adaptation, the researchers said. The pig organs and blood vessels in the tests varied widely in appearance and anatomy, "mirroring the diversity encountered in human surgeries," they said. While the robot achieved 100% accuracy in the surgeries, it took longer to perform the work than a human surgeon. Commercially available surgical robots include Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System, which has been used in over 12 million procedures globally since receiving FDA approval in 2000. Unlike SRT-H, the da Vinci system relies entirely on human surgeons to control its movements remotely. The global surgical robotics market is approaching $10 billion annually with about 2.7 million robotic procedures performed in 2024, Baird analyst David Rescott estimated. Eventually, autonomous surgical robots could help address surgeon shortages, minimize human error, and provide consistent, high-quality care in underserved regions, the researchers said.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Experimental surgical robot performs gallbladder procedure autonomously
By Kamal Choudhury (Reuters) -An experimental AI-guided robot can autonomously perform a delicate, complicated phase of a common gallbladder operation, marking a major step toward automated medical procedures, researchers said on Wednesday. Existing surgical robots are remotely controlled by surgeons. The new system uses artificial intelligence to make independent decisions and adapts to unexpected complications during operations, said Axel Krieger of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the research. He likened it to an autonomous vehicle that can 'navigate any road, in any condition, responding intelligently to whatever it encounters.' 'This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to ones that truly understand surgical procedures,' he said. The SRT-H robot was trained via an AI framework known as language-guided imitation learning, using videos of surgeons performing gallbladder removal surgeries on pig cadavers, the researchers reported in Science Robotics. The robot was tested on eight varying sets of pig gallbladders and livers that had been removed from the animals. Separating the gallbladder from the liver takes several minutes and involves 'diverse tool use, including grabbing, clipping, and cutting - skills common in real surgical procedures,' along with decision-making and adaptation, the researchers said. The pig organs and blood vessels in the tests varied widely in appearance and anatomy, 'mirroring the diversity encountered in human surgeries,' they said. While the robot achieved 100% accuracy in the surgeries, it took longer to perform the work than a human surgeon. Commercially available surgical robots include Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System, which has been used in over 12 million procedures globally since receiving FDA approval in 2000. Unlike SRT-H, the da Vinci system relies entirely on human surgeons to control its movements remotely. The global surgical robotics market is approaching $10 billion annually with about 2.7 million robotic procedures performed in 2024, Baird analyst David Rescott estimated. Eventually, autonomous surgical robots could help address surgeon shortages, minimize human error, and provide consistent, high-quality care in underserved regions, the researchers said. The research was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
Rhyl Journal
7 hours ago
- Health
- Rhyl Journal
Robot performs realistic surgery ‘with 100% accuracy'
In a 'major leap' towards using more robots in operating theatres, a machine trained on the videos of surgeries was able to precisely work on removing a gallbladder. The robot operated with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers in the US, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real-life medical emergencies. The robot was watched as it performed a lengthy phase of a gallbladder removal on a life-like patient. It was able to respond to and learn from voice commands from the team, just like a novice surgeon working with a mentor. Overall, there were 17 tasks in the surgery, the robot had to identify certain ducts and arteries and grab them precisely, strategically place clips, and sever parts with scissors. It was also able to adapt even when dye was introduced which changed the appearance of the organs and tissue. Associate professor in mechanical engineering, Axel Krieger, said: 'This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to robots that truly understand surgical procedures. 'This is a critical distinction that brings us significantly closer to clinically viable autonomous surgical systems that can work in the messy, unpredictable reality of actual patient care.' The work received federal government funding and was published in the journal Science Robotics. Back in 2022, a robot performed the first autonomous robotic surgery on a pig. However, it required specially marked tissue, operated in a highly controlled environment, and followed a rigid, pre-determined surgical plan. Mr Krieger said that phase was like teaching a robot to drive along a carefully mapped route. But the new system, he said, was 'like teaching a robot to navigate any road, in any condition, responding intelligently to whatever it encounters.' He added: 'To me it really shows that it's possible to perform complex surgical procedures autonomously.' The new system, which uses the same machine learning architecture that powers ChatGPT, also adapts to a patient's anatomical features in real-time and works to correct itself. It can respond to spoken commands such as 'grab the gallbladder head' or 'move the left arm a bit to the left', and then learns from that feedback. Ji Woong Kim, a former postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins who is now at Stanford University, said: 'This work represents a major leap from prior efforts because it tackles some of the fundamental barriers to deploying autonomous surgical robots in the real world. 'Our work shows that AI models can be made reliable enough for surgical autonomy – something that once felt far-off but is now demonstrably viable.' Although the robot took longer to perform the work than a human surgeon, the results were comparable to an expert surgeon, researchers said. Next, the team will train and test the system on more types of surgeries. Reacting to the findings, Nuha Yassin, consultant colorectal surgeon and council member and lead for the future of surgery, robotics, and digital surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) said: 'It's always exciting to see new developments in surgical innovation, especially in areas like robotics and digital surgery. 'That said, the real test will be how safely and effectively the findings of this study can be translated into human trials. 'We need to make sure that progress doesn't come at the expense of patient safety. An additional focus is training our current and future generations as a whole, but also in technology and digital literacy. 'As interest in robotic and digital surgery continues to grow, we're committed to supporting that progress whilst focusing on safe implementation and training, through our guidance on robotic-assisted surgery and surgical innovation – while keeping equity of access and safety for our patients at the heart and centre.'
North Wales Chronicle
7 hours ago
- Health
- North Wales Chronicle
Robot performs realistic surgery ‘with 100% accuracy'
In a 'major leap' towards using more robots in operating theatres, a machine trained on the videos of surgeries was able to precisely work on removing a gallbladder. The robot operated with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers in the US, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real-life medical emergencies. The robot was watched as it performed a lengthy phase of a gallbladder removal on a life-like patient. It was able to respond to and learn from voice commands from the team, just like a novice surgeon working with a mentor. Overall, there were 17 tasks in the surgery, the robot had to identify certain ducts and arteries and grab them precisely, strategically place clips, and sever parts with scissors. It was also able to adapt even when dye was introduced which changed the appearance of the organs and tissue. Associate professor in mechanical engineering, Axel Krieger, said: 'This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to robots that truly understand surgical procedures. 'This is a critical distinction that brings us significantly closer to clinically viable autonomous surgical systems that can work in the messy, unpredictable reality of actual patient care.' The work received federal government funding and was published in the journal Science Robotics. Back in 2022, a robot performed the first autonomous robotic surgery on a pig. However, it required specially marked tissue, operated in a highly controlled environment, and followed a rigid, pre-determined surgical plan. Mr Krieger said that phase was like teaching a robot to drive along a carefully mapped route. But the new system, he said, was 'like teaching a robot to navigate any road, in any condition, responding intelligently to whatever it encounters.' He added: 'To me it really shows that it's possible to perform complex surgical procedures autonomously.' The new system, which uses the same machine learning architecture that powers ChatGPT, also adapts to a patient's anatomical features in real-time and works to correct itself. It can respond to spoken commands such as 'grab the gallbladder head' or 'move the left arm a bit to the left', and then learns from that feedback. Ji Woong Kim, a former postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins who is now at Stanford University, said: 'This work represents a major leap from prior efforts because it tackles some of the fundamental barriers to deploying autonomous surgical robots in the real world. 'Our work shows that AI models can be made reliable enough for surgical autonomy – something that once felt far-off but is now demonstrably viable.' Although the robot took longer to perform the work than a human surgeon, the results were comparable to an expert surgeon, researchers said. Next, the team will train and test the system on more types of surgeries. Reacting to the findings, Nuha Yassin, consultant colorectal surgeon and council member and lead for the future of surgery, robotics, and digital surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) said: 'It's always exciting to see new developments in surgical innovation, especially in areas like robotics and digital surgery. 'That said, the real test will be how safely and effectively the findings of this study can be translated into human trials. 'We need to make sure that progress doesn't come at the expense of patient safety. An additional focus is training our current and future generations as a whole, but also in technology and digital literacy. 'As interest in robotic and digital surgery continues to grow, we're committed to supporting that progress whilst focusing on safe implementation and training, through our guidance on robotic-assisted surgery and surgical innovation – while keeping equity of access and safety for our patients at the heart and centre.'
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
AI-trained robots 'to be undertaking surgery on humans in the coming years' after success with PIGS
Robots that have been taught through AI could perform surgery on humans in the next decade after successfully operating on pigs. A robot arm has been able to remove the gall bladder from a swine with tools that can cut, clip and grab soft tissue. The machine which was powered by AI - and has similar technology to ChatGPT - had been shown videos of humans performing similar operations. It then did the same procedure eight more times on dead boars at John Hopkins University, with a 100 per cent success rate that took just over five minutes. Experts believe that this could mean robots could replicate the skills of humanity's best surgeons, helping to pave the way for a revolution in health care. The machines were slightly slower than human doctors however their movements were less jerky and they were able to make shorter trajectories between tasks, the American researchers found. Mistakes were corrected along the way and different tools were requested for various anatomical differences, the scientists wrote in their paper for Science Robotics. They said their discovery was 'a milestone toward clinical deployment of autonomous surgical systems'. In only 17 steps, the machines were able to cut the gallbladder from the liver, apply six clips in a specific order and remove the organ. 'We were able to perform a surgical procedure with a really high level of autonomy,' the assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins said. Axel Krieger said: 'In prior work, we were able to do some surgical tasks like suturing. What we've done here is really a full procedure. 'So I think it's a really big landmark study that such a difficult soft tissue surgery is possible to do autonomously.' The Royal College of Surgeons called the breakthrough 'an exciting development that shows great promise'. While a leading British expert on robotic surgery said that they were 'impressive' and 'novel' results, adding that it 'takes us further into the world of autonomy'. John McGrath said that current robotic surgeries available on the NHS, some 70,000 of them performed every year, are all human led except from bone- cutting on hips and knees which is semi-autonomous. But plans are already in place to introduce more robotic surgery to the UK's health care system. Heath Secretary Wes Streeting said last month that increasing robotic surgery was crucial to reforming the NHS and cutting waiting times in the next 10 years. The NHS has also said that nine out of 10 keyhole surgeries in the next decade will be done by a robot, a huge increase from the current one in five. Dr McGrath, the chair of NHS England's robotics steering committee, believes that surgeons will eventually be able to oversee several operations at the same time and perform simple procedures like gall bladder removals or hernia operations quicker. The robots could also be more precise and cause less damage to surrounding body tissue, he said. However, there are still some steps before this point when considering the robots could react differently to a breathing body compared to the carcass of a dead animal. Other surgical logistics like flowing blood, fluid on the camera, injuries or smoke from cauterisation also have to be considered. 'The next step must involve a careful exploration of the nuances within this rapidly evolving field to assess how these findings can be safely and effectively translated into a human pilot,' the lead on robotic surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Nuha Yassin, said. 'Only then can this approach move toward, becoming a sustainable model for the future.'
