MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Abstract: Technology has been advancing the field of medicine faster than ever. One of the recent breakthroughs involves the revolutionary use of robotics in assisting surgical procedures, especially in the laparoscopic field. Since robotics are new, uncertain, and costly, the effectiveness and feasibility of the implementation of robots in surgery have not been proven yet. There have been a few studies published regarding the learning curves of robotics-assisted surgery vs. traditional open surgery, but they have not been compared or analyzed yet. After having worked on publishing a paper about robotic-assisted surgery vs. traditional laparoscopic surgery, I have insight into how robotics work in medicine and the pros/cons of implementation. I aim to review and analyze the current studies done on robotic-assisted surgery, as well as evaluate the state and use of robotics in surgery so that interested readers will know what surgery may look like in the near future.

Reader Profile: I imagine an medical student aspiring to be a surgeon, interested in bioengineering and/or wondering how surgery may change in the future.

Reader Response: I think that the research done on the effectiveness of robotics in surgery is pretty interesting, but it is still a relatively new topic so I would like to see more studies being published in the same or different fields. Robots are costly currently, I think that they are very cool and may make surgeons' lives easier, but their costs may outweigh the benefits of traditional surgery. I am interested to see how robots can be improved in the future to make implementation more smoothly and successful.

E -- revise your title to note the case of abdominal surgery. Use specifics in your opening, like:

Robotics in medicine are relatively new, in design since the mid 1990s but now increasingly used in some surgery settings. Surgeons performing abdominal procedures -- appendectomy, [name some more procedures] -- sometimes use robotics to improve speed, reduce trauma and bleedings, and achieve superior patient outcomes.

(See all the specifics here, in a revised way to approach this important topics?)

Also, in the closing: will robotics replace surgeons?