Once the realm of science fiction, bionics is slowly but surely becoming a reality. Advances in medical prostheses and computer technology are making the dream of building a bionic human a reality. (more…)

Robert P Caruso, MD uses the DaVinci Robotic Surgery system to perform a Robot-Assisted Prostatectomy.

PS. If you like videos of medical procedures, check out the Medical Video Blog at NewMediaMedicine.com.

Dmitry Oleynikov’s radio controlled robot camera is designed to assist surgeons operating on the stomach and abdomen. The device is 15 mm in diameter so that it can be inserted via keyhole surgery and controlled via a console with a joystick.

Link: The New Scientist

Fox News has been reporting about UCLAs latest medical technology. Check out the bedside robot and integrated wireless network.

.

There’s also an extended report about the wireless system here (source: MedGadget)

If you are interested in using Handheld Computers in your hospital, make sure you attend our Handheld Computers Workshops at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on April 6th.

A new study by Yale university, published in Anesthesia and Analgesia, throws weight behind the argument for stopping the ban of cell phones in hospitals:

Using mobile telephones in hospitals reduces the error rate in medical care because of more timely communication and rarely causes electronic magnetic interference, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this month.
The study published in February’s Anesthesia & Analgesia is believed to be the first to investigate whether use of cell phones by medical personnel has a beneficial impact on safety. It was based on 4,018 responses from attendees at the 2003 meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Of those anesthesiologists who participated in the survey, 65 percent reported using pagers as their primary mode of communications and 17 percent said they used cellular telephones. Forty percent of respondents who use pagers reported delays in communications, compared to 31 percent of cellular telephone users.

The senior author, Keith Ruskin, M.D., associate professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Neurosurgery, said the electronic interference from mobile telephone was a problem in the past because of older telemetry equipment and analog cell phones.

“The new digital cell phones used much higher power and operate at a different frequency,” Ruskin said. “The small risks of electromagnetic interference between mobile telephones and medical devices should be weighed against the potential benefits of improved communication.”

He said the reported 2.4 percent prevalence of electronic interference with life support devices such as ventilators, intravenous infusion pumps, and monitoring equipment is much lower than the 14.9 percent risk of observed medical error or injury due to a delay in communication.

Business Week has an article about Medtronic’s Personal Therapy Manager. This is a device based on a Palm Handspring PDA that wirelessly controls a drug infusion system.