Max
03-01-2005, 10:21 AM
No More Crash-Test Surgery By Kristen Philipkoski
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66711,00.html
02:00 AM Feb. 28, 2005 PT
We'd like to think that when surgeons cut open a patient, the one wielding the scalpel has a pretty good idea of how the surgery will turn out. We'd like to think a surgeon is at least as sure as, say, a mechanic is of a vehicle's safety.
In reality, each surgery is the equivalent of a crash test. Chances are the surgeon has never operated on that particular human being before, and the doctor has no way of knowing how the organ in question, not to mention peripheral blood vessels or arteries, will react.
Stanford engineer and surgeon Charles Taylor has worked for about a decade to bring more predictability into surgery. He and his collaborators have amassed medical data including MRIs and CT scans, and combined them with algorithms the team has worked out to predict blood flow, the flexibility of veins and arteries, among other parameters. His goal is to develop a simple software tool that allows surgeons to practice each individual operation before touching scalpel to skin.
"It's the ultimate video game," said Dr. Jeffrey Feinstein, a pediatric cardiologist at Stanford who is helping Taylor develop the technology. "You sit down and make a change and you see the results in real time. You can try a few things without actually having to try them on the patient
http://stores.ebay.com/MAKSYM-Variety-Store
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66711,00.html
02:00 AM Feb. 28, 2005 PT
We'd like to think that when surgeons cut open a patient, the one wielding the scalpel has a pretty good idea of how the surgery will turn out. We'd like to think a surgeon is at least as sure as, say, a mechanic is of a vehicle's safety.
In reality, each surgery is the equivalent of a crash test. Chances are the surgeon has never operated on that particular human being before, and the doctor has no way of knowing how the organ in question, not to mention peripheral blood vessels or arteries, will react.
Stanford engineer and surgeon Charles Taylor has worked for about a decade to bring more predictability into surgery. He and his collaborators have amassed medical data including MRIs and CT scans, and combined them with algorithms the team has worked out to predict blood flow, the flexibility of veins and arteries, among other parameters. His goal is to develop a simple software tool that allows surgeons to practice each individual operation before touching scalpel to skin.
"It's the ultimate video game," said Dr. Jeffrey Feinstein, a pediatric cardiologist at Stanford who is helping Taylor develop the technology. "You sit down and make a change and you see the results in real time. You can try a few things without actually having to try them on the patient
http://stores.ebay.com/MAKSYM-Variety-Store