Expert: Equipping surgical robots with a "brain" will bring remote surgery to a new clinical stage
Wu Peng, Director of the Urology Department at Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, said at the Second Nanyue AI Medical Robot Forum that the technological focus of surgical robots is shifting from precisely executing doctors' operations to possessing auxiliary judgment capabilities, actively playing a role in auxiliary diagnosis, intraoperative blood vessel boundary identification, and bleeding risk warning. Chinese urology teams have carried out multiple explorations of cross-regional and transcontinental remote robotic surgery, with the farthest attempt being remote surgery between China and Europe with a two-way communication distance exceeding 20,000 kilometers. Wu Peng pointed out that for remote surgery to move from technical demonstrations to routine medical care, it is still necessary to establish systems for network redundancy, surgeon admission, on-site emergency response, data security, and liability determination.
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In the past, surgical robots were more like an "extension" of the doctor's hands, executing every instruction; today, the focus of technological development is shifting toward equipping robots with "judgment," enabling them to take an active role in auxiliary diagnosis, intraoperative identification of blood vessel boundaries, and early warning of bleeding risk.
The Second Nanyue Artificial Intelligence Medical Robot Forum, the Training Course on Standardization of Clinical Application of Artificial Intelligence Medical Robots, and the Thirteenth Southern Urology Forum were held in Guangzhou on November 1. With "artificial intelligence + medical robots" as the main thread, the conference held discussions on topics including intelligent auxiliary diagnosis, remote surgery, multidisciplinary applications, and the cultivation of new medical talents, promoting the connection between cutting-edge technologies and clinical application standards.
The Second Nanyue Artificial Intelligence Medical Robot Forum, the Training Course on Standardization of Clinical Application of Artificial Intelligence Medical Robots, and the Thirteenth Southern Urology Forum were held in Guangzhou. Photo courtesy of the conference
"Equipping surgical robots with a 'brain'" became one of the most closely watched topics at this forum. Wu Peng, director of the Department of Urology at Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, said that the current focus of technological development is shifting from robots precisely executing doctors' operations to how to give robots auxiliary judgment capabilities, so that they can play a role in auxiliary diagnosis, intraoperative identification of blood vessel boundaries, and early warning of bleeding risk.
The conference held discussions on dynamic identification of blood vessel boundaries in minimally invasive surgery enhanced by generative artificial intelligence, intraoperative intelligent navigation, and other topics. Industry observers believe that the more realistic near-term role of artificial intelligence is not to replace surgeons, but to provide doctors with "digital eyes" in highly complex, high-risk operations, driving robotic surgery to evolve from a "precise execution tool" to an "intelligent auxiliary platform."
Remote surgery was likewise an important topic at this forum. With the help of domestically produced surgical robots and high-speed communication networks, doctors are already able to control robots to complete surgery from hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away. China's urology teams have carried out multiple explorations of cross-regional and cross-continental remote robotic surgery, and have furthest achieved a remote surgery attempt between China and Europe with a two-way communication distance of more than 20,000 kilometers.
Wu Peng said that remote surgery helps channel high-quality medical resources downward, enabling patients in remote areas and at the primary level to obtain high-level specialized surgical support. To move from technical demonstrations to routine medical care, it is still necessary to establish strict systems for network redundancy, surgeon admission, on-site emergency response, data security, and liability determination, which is also the important significance of this standardized training course.
Experts at the conference believe that what needs to be cultivated in the future is not merely doctors who can "use machines," but composite medical talents who can understand clinical needs, participate in technological innovation, and clearly understand safety boundaries and ethical norms.
"The time for traditional theoretical lectures can be appropriately reduced, and more energy should be directed toward clinical practice, doctor-patient communication, and medical humanities education," Wu Peng said. However, robot operation is a nationally restricted medical technology, and medical students still need to solidly master the fundamentals of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and other subjects, and must not neglect basic training because of reliance on advanced tools.
The application of intelligent agents was another highlight of this forum. Wu Peng said that the capabilities of artificial intelligence agents depend on the quality of training data, and only by relying on a large amount of standardized, high-quality clinical data can intelligent agents that truly serve clinical practice be developed. In the future, doctors will need to master a certain amount of artificial intelligence knowledge and collaborate with engineers in order to better identify clinical pain points and promote the implementation of intelligent technologies. (End)
(Source: China News Service) Middle of the main body Embedded advertisement