730 research outputs found
Surgical Gym: A high-performance GPU-based platform for reinforcement learning with surgical robots
Recent advances in robot-assisted surgery have resulted in progressively more
precise, efficient, and minimally invasive procedures, sparking a new era of
robotic surgical intervention. This enables doctors, in collaborative
interaction with robots, to perform traditional or minimally invasive surgeries
with improved outcomes through smaller incisions. Recent efforts are working
toward making robotic surgery more autonomous which has the potential to reduce
variability of surgical outcomes and reduce complication rates. Deep
reinforcement learning methodologies offer scalable solutions for surgical
automation, but their effectiveness relies on extensive data acquisition due to
the absence of prior knowledge in successfully accomplishing tasks. Due to the
intensive nature of simulated data collection, previous works have focused on
making existing algorithms more efficient. In this work, we focus on making the
simulator more efficient, making training data much more accessible than
previously possible. We introduce Surgical Gym, an open-source high performance
platform for surgical robot learning where both the physics simulation and
reinforcement learning occur directly on the GPU. We demonstrate between
100-5000x faster training times compared with previous surgical learning
platforms. The code is available at:
https://github.com/SamuelSchmidgall/SurgicalGym
Healthcare Robotics
Robots have the potential to be a game changer in healthcare: improving
health and well-being, filling care gaps, supporting care givers, and aiding
health care workers. However, before robots are able to be widely deployed, it
is crucial that both the research and industrial communities work together to
establish a strong evidence-base for healthcare robotics, and surmount likely
adoption barriers. This article presents a broad contextualization of robots in
healthcare by identifying key stakeholders, care settings, and tasks; reviewing
recent advances in healthcare robotics; and outlining major challenges and
opportunities to their adoption.Comment: 8 pages, Communications of the ACM, 201
Better Medicine
https://scholarlyworks.lvhn.org/better-medicine/1007/thumbnail.jp
The Role Of Industry Structure On Customer Value In Robotic Surgery
Spending on robot surgery is expected to increase by $17 billion in the next 6 years. This new surgical treatment has challenged hospitals with higher costs and varying performance. Healthcare executives struggle balancing the adoption of medical innovations with managing healthcare costs. This dilemma can be further complicated by industry structures relative to capital-intensive medical innovations. This research explores the interaction between industry structure and customer value. Specifically, how can hospitals apply an understanding of supplier industry structure and customer value to improve the value of a robotic surgery program (RSP)? This industry study represents an exhaustive longitudinal review of over 15 years of public data relative to robotic surgery, across three distinct time periods. Within the research, industry structure is evaluated using Porter’s 5-forces model. A framework based upon contributions from Grönroos as well as Menon, Homburg, and Beutin is introduced to assess customer value based upon clinical, financial and strategic (CFS) value. The implications of periodic industry structure on customer value were examined to identify opportunities for hospital executives to increase RSP customer value.
There were several empirical and theoretical findings from this research. First, in the face of increasing industry structure the identification of favorable forces may create opportunities to increase RSP value. Secondarily, exploring customer value through the lens of core, add-on, relational and transactional benefits in the sub-context of CFS value aids in the identification of market power influences on customer value. The implications of the absence of high levels of relational and transactional benefits without high levels of core and add-on benefits may influence avenues of pursuit in improving RSP value overall. The research also suggests that clinical and strategic value was present despite varying degrees of industry structure. Finally, this study represents an empirical joint analysis of industry structure and customer value in robotic surgery. Some proponents may find the introduction of an integrative model for measuring customer value in robotic surgery, applicable to other capital-intensive medical innovations or disruptive technologies at large
Deep Homography Prediction for Endoscopic Camera Motion Imitation Learning
In this work, we investigate laparoscopic camera motion automation through
imitation learning from retrospective videos of laparoscopic interventions. A
novel method is introduced that learns to augment a surgeon's behavior in image
space through object motion invariant image registration via homographies.
Contrary to existing approaches, no geometric assumptions are made and no depth
information is necessary, enabling immediate translation to a robotic setup.
Deviating from the dominant approach in the literature which consist of
following a surgical tool, we do not handcraft the objective and no priors are
imposed on the surgical scene, allowing the method to discover unbiased
policies. In this new research field, significant improvements are demonstrated
over two baselines on the Cholec80 and HeiChole datasets, showcasing an
improvement of 47% over camera motion continuation. The method is further shown
to indeed predict camera motion correctly on the public motion classification
labels of the AutoLaparo dataset. All code is made accessible on GitHub.Comment: Early accepted at MICCAI 202
Medicine + Health Magazine, Fall 2018
https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/smhs_medhealth/1016/thumbnail.jp
Technology spreading in healthcare: a novel era in medicine and surgery?
Surgery and technological innovation have begun to move at the speed of light, with innovations and discoveries such as virtual reality, robotic systems, navigation surgery, and 5G networks radically revolutionizing the surgical world as well as the medical world in general, bringing significant benefits for healthcare professionals and patients alike. Technology will increasingly be a crucial element in surgical and medical development. This new therapeutic approach aims to enhance human–computer interaction by putting a new “patient” figure at its center. Multiple studies will be needed to demonstrate new advanced technological systems’ noninferiority to traditional patient approaches. Scientific societies, hospitals, and healthcare professionals cannot be found ill prepared for this revolution
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