Robots in Medicine 135
eberry writes "The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center will use a robot to mix intravenous medications and prepare its syringes. The robot, about the size of three refrigerators strapped together, can fill 300 syringes an hour, each with a custom dose and a bar-code label routing it to a particular patient. The robot should reduce the potential for errors and improve patient safety. The robot still needs further approval by the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy, but that should come within a month. It should be noted that five Cincinnati hospitals already use computerized pill-dispensing systems." On the other hand, reader Bobbert sends in a cautionary note: "'A group of German patients has filed a lawsuit against financially beleaguered Integrated Surgical Systems Inc., alleging that the Davis company' Robodoc surgical robot is defective and dangerous, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.' So now with robotic surgery, both the doctor and the robot can liable for damages. Next thing you know, telecoms will be liable for medical malpractice if the network connections fail during remote robotic surgery."
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
The governments of Vancover, Canada and Amsterdam, Netherlands have placed orders of 10 of these machines each presumably to placed on street corners.
Hacker practical joke (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Human Error and Logic (Score:3, Funny)
I'm sorry, your question does not compute. Shall we play a game of chess?
Eep! Imagine the barcode scenario... (Score:3, Funny)
Boop...
Brrz!
"Benzadrine. Price check on Benzadrine."
*shudders*
Remote robotic surgery... (Score:1, Funny)
Brings a whole new meaning to... (Score:4, Funny)
Oh my! (Score:3, Funny)
Well, I hope it's not for internal use. Can you imagine that thing crawing up your colon?
Oddly, I think some of you could. :-)
Aw, man, here comes another Troll/Offtopic mod. :(
Robot Lawyer! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Just someone else to get sued (Score:2, Funny)
Kinda frightening isn't it? For comparison:
Robot Bartender. Error = client is drunk. [packworld.com]
Robot Pharmacist. Error = client is dead.
I don't know why the scientists keep building them (Score:3, Funny)
They eat old people's medicine for fuel. And when they grab you in their metal claws, you can't escape because they're made of metal.
Depression (Score:3, Funny)
out the appendix.
"How do you think I feel?" said Marvin bitterly.
"Just ran off and left you, did they?" the machine thundered.
"Yes," said Marvin.
"I think I'll shoot down their bloody ceiling as well!" raged the tank.
It took out the ceiling of the theatre.
"That's very impressive," murmured Marvin.
"You ain't seeing nothing yet," promised the machine, "I can take out
this floor too, no trouble!"
It took out the floor, too.
"Hell's bells!" the machine roared as it plummeted fifteen storeys and
smashed itself to bits on the ground below.
"What a depressingly stupid machine," said Marvin and trudged away.
(with apologies to Douglas...)
Re:Patients, not patents. (Score:3, Funny)
good (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, and that's as it should be: if you bring a product or service to market and it causes harm because it doesn't work as promised, you should be responsible for the damages.
So, if your robot causes unnecessary harm to patients or if your high-availability comlink goes down too much, then you should have to pay.