RehabilitationSurgery,+Prosthetic+devices,+Diagnostic+technology


 * Diagnostic and therapeutic tools - surgery, prosthetic devices, diagnostic technology, rehabilitation, patient monitoring, individualized IT solutions for disabled people, accessibility.**

September 2, 2011 September, Robots the future of prostate treatment September 1, 2011 Portable microscope detects bacteria using holograms September 1, 2011 Powering prosthetics with thoughts alone August 31, 2011 [|Microchip implant monitors tumour growth]

Read each article and provide a brief (one paragraph) summary. Following the summaries, answer these specific questions about each article.


 * Robots the future of prostate treatment**

Summary: The Australasian Prostate Cancer Conference in Melbourne presented a 3D video of a robot performing a radical prostatectomy. Top specialists around the world were impressed by the robot surgery and Dr Robin Smart, a urology specialist, stated that robot surgery will be the treatment for prostate cancer in the future. Robot surgery will have the advantage of performing precise work and capable of operating around fragile tissue and nerves that has high risks of affecting patient's recovery stage finely.

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 * 1) What are the benefits of having robots perform surgical operations?
 * Robots are capable of operating more risky area of the human body (tissue or nerves) with their firm hands and precise work.
 * 1) Can you think of any drawbacks?
 * Robots might cause unemployment for surgeons as they are being replaced.
 * The cost of maintenance for the robots might be too expensive compared to a surgeon's salary.
 * 1) In your opinion, is there a limit to what surgical robots will be able to accomplish. For example, the robots are currently controlled by doctors. Will the robots ever take over the complete surgery?
 * I think there is a limit for robots to complete surgery because robots are just awaiting orders or commands from doctors to perform certain procedure of work precisely. Robots still need doctors to take the lead or to make examination of the patient during the operation to make sure if everything goes well and to check if there is new symptoms found or wrong procedure included in the surgery. Therefore I think robots will never take over the surgery completely because they still need human to make fine decisions.


 * Portable microscope detects bacteria using holograms**

Summary: Researchers in U.S. are developing a cheap microscope that is capable to detect E. coli bacteria and other bacteria as well. This microscope is designed with two modes of operations, transmission and reflection, that produce holographic images or 3D images. They are made to see small samples, so they use common digital photo sensors that can be found in iPhones or Blackberrys. Prof Aydogan Ozcan from UCLA stated that this device will improve healthcare throughout the areas of the world, these microscope are in cheap price so that they are affordable for some areas that needed more advanced diagnostic equipment for better analysis research and healthcare.


 * 1) What is e. coli?
 * Large group of bacterial germs that can be found in the intestinal tract of humans or warm-blooded animals. Most of them are harmless but some can cause food poisoning to humans.
 * 1) How will this microscope help in the developing world?
 * This cheap microscope allow many areas in the world that lack of advanced diagnostic equipment able to afford them for better analysis and healthcare.


 * Powering prosthetics with thoughts alone**

Summary: U.S. researchers are trying to have an experiment of using mind power to control a robotic arm. If the experiment is successful, patients will be able to move their prosthetic limb perfectly with their mind. Researchers are trying to test this experiment by implanting a tiny electrode array into patient's brain. The way this prosthetic going to work is when the transmitter of the prosthetic receives signal from the neuron electrode, it will be transmitted to the arm that interprets the signal and then converts it into a motion. Micheal McLoughlin, program manager at the APL, explained that the prosthetic limb weights the same as a natural arm with 22 degrees of motion that includes finger movements. This program is aiming to have a wireless system with everything in the body and contain touch sensors for the limb to pick up vibrations, temperature and surface textures. They hope this experiment will be successful so that this program can help the amputees patients to have a normal life like anyone else.


 * 1) What are the benefits of having a thought-powered prosthetic limb?
 * The ability to do more work independently without the assistance of other people. Amputees will have more job opportunities and able to be part of the society again.
 * 1) Going back to our section on security, what could be some potential dangers?
 * Saboteurs might hack into the systems through the tiny chip inside the brain for unknown purpose. *


 * Microchip Implant Monitors Tumour Growth**

Summary: Germany researchers have developed a microchip sensor that can be used to detect the saturation of oxygen in nearby tissues. This microchip will be implanted into patient's body to monitor the growth of tumor. They hope to create a microchip with wireless system to transmit results from patients to their doctors without taking multiples of hospital scans. The fact that some tumors are difficult to remove due to their location in patient's body and especially the elderly patients, it will be very risky to perform surgery so researchers consider using microchip to monitor the tumor and treat them when they reach a higher phase may be a better solution from risking patient's life. Researchers also plan to develop this device with a drug pump that can release drug close to a tumor for better treatment. They hope this medication pump can be added to the microchip for instant treatment compared to chemotherapy that has many side effects to patient's body. They hope this device will be successfully created within ten years to have a more effective treatment for future cancer patients.

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 * 1) Again, what are the benefits?
 * More convenient for both doctors and patients. Patients no longer have to go to hospital for frequent scans checkup for their body. The microchip will help doctors to find the location of the tumor in patient's body more easily and faster. Patients get to have better treatments for the tumor as doctors get to monitor the condition of the tumor and give the right treatment. If drug pump is able to added to the microchip, it will make patients' treatment more effective and better than before as the side effects might be lower compared to chemotherapy.
 * 1) The article seems only to talk about positive aspects but also notes that the device can communicate wirelessly to the doctor. What are the inherent dangers of this?
 * Attacker can use their own cheap wireless system to detect the patient's device and attack patient's privacy or causing physical harm. If they are able to hack into more advance device in the future, patient's health and performance might be at stake as the attackers might infect patient's device with digital virus or bombarding with random signals to interfere the feedbacks of the device.
 * 1) Can you find any information regarding the security of these new technological medical advances?
 * (Neurosecurity by Tadayoshi Kohno) This article explained the awareness of the neural engineers that future medical devices might be in dangers of being attacked by hackers as they might able to use wireless systems for all the devices. The three tenets that they are going to focus for the neurosecurity are confidentially, integrity and availability. These security concerns will help to prevent future patient's to have personal information being revealed to everyone or being attacked physically or mentally. Without security for these advanced devices, patients will have adverse effect on their health and mental state.