UK Docs Perform First Remote-Control Heart Surgery

ByronScott writes "Doctors at a British hospital have just carried out the world's first surgery using a remote-controlled robot. The procedure fixed a patient's irregular heart rhythm, and although the doctor was in the same hospital as the patient — just through the wall in another room — developers of the RC surgery technology believe this is the first step toward long-distance operations. Imagine a doctor in London performing surgery on your heart in New York!"

Re:But why long distance?

[Fex303]

Wouldn't you much rather have a skilled surgeon standing over you performing with all of his/her senses, instead of some doctor in London?

All of his/her senses? Hmmm... I think I'd rather they don't use their sense of taste, if that's all the same to everyone else.

Don't use Comcast

[T Murphy]

Ooh boy, the patient just flatlined! Wait.. nevermind, lagspike. Well, we better be careful- I hear this Comcast service can cost you an arm an a leg.

Re:WCPGW?

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine a hitman or terminator blowing up the hospital and trying to kill you while a team of hot lesbian *female doctors are scrubbing each other down as they prepare to perform your penis enlargement. Oh... I thought we were playing the what-if game..

Things you don't want to hear during a remote proc

[n1hilist]

Connection reset by peer.

No route to host.

%!@JQJA^NO CARRIER

"Installing service pack 3"

etc;

Re:Things you don't want to hear during a remote p

[dudpixel]

"I see you're writing a letter..."

or what about the sound windows makes when you plug in or unplug a usb device?

URGENT!!!!

[Hognoxious]

London and NY? More likely, imagine NHS outsourcing to India, China, lowest bidder etc....

Coming soon on alt.medicine.heart-surgery...

Ha folks, Sunesh here. I am surgeon at Chennai Instatute of Cardiology and needing to do some bypass. Pls to explaining difference between vain and artery. Patient is already opened, so reply quickly kthank's.

Re:Ping loss

[laughingcoyote]

From: Daughter
To: Mr. l33t h4xxor Mesho (by the way, is it Mesho or Meshko, you should really make up your mind.)
Subject: Your extortion demand

I am pleased to inform you that I have notified the hospital of the potential problem, and they have notified me that remote surgeries are done via a dedicated connection, not the public Internet. In light of this issue, however, they have assigned a doctor to this case. Good luck with your DDoS.

I have also contacted the FBI, who will be in contact with Swiss authorities. I will also be pleased to inform you of exactly what you can do with your six million dollars, please contact me for further information.

Yours truly,
Not as dumb as you think.

Re:High Ping Bastards

[tk]

Assumption of familiar internet protocol connection layer and crappy consumer-quality routing services. Straw man joke. Laughter.

Re:Too bad if the connection drops out...

[LucidBeast]

Mod parent up! When I'm downloading smut, last thing I want is some heart surgery interfering.

this is where TTL can get a whole new meaning

[Anonymous Coward]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_live

Re:Stargate Universe Reference

[VShael]

And yes, the connection was lost just before the device was removed

Wait a minute... Are they using Verizon on the Destiny?

Re:Not a first

[Anonymous Coward]

GP is French. To him it's all the same - they'll make pate out of anything.

Re:surgeons, not equipment

[DadLeopard]

Too bad people are such individuals when it come to component placement! Otherwise they could just run a tape of the first successful operation and automate the process like they do in the automotive industry! An operator controls the robot till they get the job done perfect once, then they just play that recorded session over for each job! Lack of standardization in human anatomy really makes thing tough! 8-)