I love the term open source; most think of Linux, MySQL, php or other computer science related ideas. Raven is actually an open source platform for software programming a robotic system developed by the University of Washington and UC Santa Cruz.
What does this mean? Well, one example would be doing surgery on a beating heart, but the instruments and camera would move in concert with the heart beat, making the surgeon less distracted during surgery. Maybe it would also bring more innovation to surgery, taking it out of the monopoly situation we are in right now.
Genetic Link for Prostate Cancer
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| A homeobox transcription gene in endoplasmic reticulum |
Men were 5 times more likely to develop early prostate cancer if they had mutation in the HOXB13 gene. About 3% of men who had early prostate cancer also had the mutation. While this number sounds low, I think it is an important marker, which could help identify patients who should be subject to screening.
In addition, it would be interesting to see if there is anything that could be done to the mutation as a sort of preventive therapy.
In San Antonio, we have seen a definite increase in interest in predictive tests for prostate cancer. A genetic test would be great to help identify patients who would be candidates for treatment with a robotic radical prostatectomy.
Prostate Cancer Survivors Respond to PSA Screening Controversy | The List | a Chron.com blog
Kirby EagleNation Goman Outwardly super-healthy 51 y.o. has PSA of 20.6. Turns out to be Stage 3, with seminal vesicle involvement and extra-prostatic extensions. Thank God for my surgeon, Naveen Kella of Urology San Antonio. Everyday is a gift.
via blog.chron.com
Thanks for the mention, Mr Goman. I'm going to check out the Blue Cure.
Unleash the Robot Dogs of War
The intuitive robot is a bit smoother, but this is impressive and a bit intimidating if you are on the wrong side of AlphaDog...
Stanford researchers build transparent, super-stretchy skin-like sensor
This kind of skin could be placed on robots-- Imagine placing this on a robotic instrument with a way to pass on the force sensation to the human controlling the motion. Or perhaps creating a emergency stop when parts of the robotic instrument start running into resistance... This technology was created not only at my alma mater, but also by my old chemE department!
PSA controversy
These positive biopsies then have to be discussed with the patient. Not every person with prostate cancer should have treatment. One out of six men will be diagnosed with the disease, but not everyone will die of the prostate cancer, even if left untreated.
However, if we examine the pre-PSA era, men routinely walked into a urologist's office with widespread, uncurable disease. Now, it is rare to find such a patient. Mortality has decreased.
While research continues on better screening methods, men with prostate cancer should talk to urologists and get other opinions from trusted medical professionals. Hiding or preventing access to a diagnosis seems heavy-handed...
This statement from the American Urological Association summarizes our official position.
Live surgery with narration
A lot of patients want to know if they can have a recording of their surgery after its done- it's a social time we live in, after all. While I used to record every case to help with learning, I now only record select cases. Here is a live robotic prostatectomy, which has had minimal edits but shows every step of the procedure. I have included narration and would like to thank Quill for helping support the video. Quill creates a novel suture, which is useful for constructing the urethrovesical anastomosis. They use this video for training.
Here is the video:
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