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72 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, March 8, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 15, 2005 Doctor highlights use of robots By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Dr. Michael Savitt wants you to rethink your notion of robots. Forget about futuristic machines, he told the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County during a Monday presentation, and think about the robots that build cars. "Robotics is old technology," he told the audience at the Rogue Valley Country Club. "Your dishwasher is a robot. It does the same task over and over again." Savitt takes robots into a more sensitive realm. He uses computer-assisted tools to reach into a patient’s body with more precision than the human hand can manage. Savitt has assembled a "digital operating room" at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland. Some of his tools are barely wider than a pencil. Miniature pulleys allow them to twist, turn and grasp in movements that resemble the human hand’s. Advertisement Savitt manipulates them from a computer-driven work station in a room adjacent to the patient, while a second physician stands at the bedside to provide assistance. Fiber-optic cables placed in the incision provide light to see. The cables are connected to a binocular eyepiece at Savitt’s work console to provide a three-dimensional view of the patient’s anatomy. "You see better than you do on an open (large incision) case," said Savitt, a heart surgeon at Providence St. Vincent. Similar technology could come to the Rogue Valley within several years, said Chuck Wright, Providence’s chief operating officer for Southern Oregon, during his introduction for Savitt’s presentation. Savitt said the technology is particularly well-suited for areas of the body where precision is critical, such as the heart. He livened up a fairly ordinary slide presentation with a video of the tools at work on a human heart. Images of the tools sewing stitches into a heart valve may have been too much for some members of the audience, but the video demonstrated the technology’s usefulness as a teaching tool. Robotic-assisted surgery expands a surgeon’s ability to treat patients, but Savitt noted that it also raises a host of questions for communities that choose to adopt it. Like most new technologies, it’s expensive, and it still has limited usefulness. It also needs a high level of electronic connectivity to make all the pieces work seamlessly — infrastructure that’s lacking in most older operating rooms. Physicians and hospitals will need to figure out how to use robotic surgical equipment efficiently to make it worth the cost, Savitt said. "The key to all of this is for people to collaborate," he said. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s