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Health has always been one of the most concerned topics for people across the world. With the fast development of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, AI in the medical field is becoming a trending area of media and investment, among which robotic surgery is gaining increasing attention. Using robots to assist surgery can date back to the 1980s when the PUMA560 was implemented to help localize neurosurgical brain biopsy. Up to now, robots have been used in a variety of surgeries to create a safer and more efficient environment. For example, the da Vinci surgical system has conducted more than 6 million operations worldwide so far at a promising increasing rate.
Some experts have pointed out that the market size of robotic surgeries has reached 5.3 billion dollars in 2019 and is expected to grow to 14.9 billion dollars in the year 2027, showing a great potential of having robots to assist in surgeries and demand for better health systems. This situation can be mainly attributed to two reasons:
- Aging population. According to the statistics of the United Nations, the global population over the age of 65 years old has reached 703 million in 2019 and is estimated to surpass 1.5 billion in 2050. This has led to an increase in the number of surgeries and put great pressure on medical systems.
- Medical services are rigid demand. People put more emphasis on health nowadays due to a higher living standard. Routine physical examinations and more medical expenses have posed a higher requirement for existing facilities.
In addition to the urgent needs of the market, government policies and supports are also pushing the deployment of surgical robots. Europe is establishing the “robotics for healthcare” network to promote medical robots. China and the US invested more than 378 and 200 billion dollars in the research and development of healthcare in 2020 respectively.
Machine learning (ML) is an essential part of AI that aims at training robust models with real- world data. The robot itself is an emerging technology, where ML can help build accurate control models over robots and perform secure and efficient surgery. This blog will focus on ML in surgical workflow and explore some of the most relevant applications. In each scenario, a brief introduction of related ML algorithms is given to help readers with no background to understand better.