Prophecies foreshadowing how robots will replace humans are as old as robots themselves.
But for something like this to come true, we would have to develop every robot to take over the role of humans completely and effectively – could this be what the future holds for medical robots, too? From what we’ve been witnessing, the answer is no.
In the medical field, only cooperative technologies have seen a breakthrough in adoption.
The examples of orthopedics or laparoscopic robots are paramount: none of the technologies, which are now state of the art, replace the physician in charge at any point. Quite the contrary, they are smart tool guides that automate and speed up some complex tasks and improve the professional’s capabilities using them.
Micromate™: giving Interventional Radiologists a helping hand
Needle-guided interventions pose several challenges to Interventional radiologists (IRs).
Handling moving targets (especially on soft tissues, or when a patient breathes), achieving proper instrument angulation on double-oblique or steep approaches, entering oblique planes on bone interventions, and holding heavy instruments like ablation needles or bone drills are some of them.
The main challenge, however, is to properly align and maintain that alignment while advancing the instruments. It comes as no surprise, then, that IRs often think: “How I wish I had a third hand to hold this needle steady!”
And that is the vision behind Micromate™.
With Micromate™, IRs can trust the system to help them align the instrument and keep it steady, so they can focus on the actual clinical task – which only a physician can do.
With its submillimeter accuracy on instrument placement, the robot ensures perfect alignment to the trajectory defined by the physician, as well as provides stable needle guidance along such trajectory.
By taking away the time and difficulties associated with alignment and targeting, Micromate™ helps ensure that the responsible physician can:
- Improve accuracy and reproducibility
- Reduce human error and learning curve time
- Speed up procedures and decrease complications rates
- Reduce operator radiation doses
- Improve their targeting skills, expanding indications
The debate over manual versus automatic needle insertion
We are often asked why Micromate™ does not insert the needle automatically as well.
Although automatic needle insertion is technically feasible, as typical forces associated with needle insertion are relatively small, we chose to let the physician advance the needle.
Because IRs are the ones advancing the needle along the body, they can “feel” the tissues and use this additional information as guidance during punctures. With an automatic needle advancement, this haptic feedback is lost.
One could argue, however, that an automatic needle insertion allows us to compensate for target deviations – but there is no evidence that those compensation movements are not causing the target to move as well¹.
With Micromate™, IRs can perform corrections or take over the needle insertion approach as wanted and needed. They only have to adjust the amount of friction on the needle guide to enable less grip and then drive the needle to the desired anatomical location. This possibility is especially efficient and valuable when using live imaging, such as ultrasound or fluoroscopy.
All things considered, in the debate over manual vs. automatic needle insertion, we stand on the side of the Interventional Radiologist.
