Page 4 - Industrial_Technology_EXTRA_May_11th_2020_Classical

MEDICAL INDUSTRY...

The robot revolution that is

upgrading surgical procedures

Stewart Goulding, managing director at precision drive system supplier EMS,
discusses the rise of robotics in surgery, and the electric motors behind them

arge swathes of industry are implementing when, for example, it takes four to five years to fully
powered and robotic applications to ensure train an engineer. Obviously, the first avenue to
high-quality repeatable processes. Hospital explore would be to reduce the amount of time it
Land medical professionals are also keen to takes to train in the industry.
implement these applications, especially with the However, just like the engineering profession,
current pressure on the medical system the continual growth of new knowledge and the vast
There are many factors escalating the growth of body of expertise and information already needed
surgical robotics and equipment in the medical makes reducing training time nearly impossible.
sector — from the level of training required to At the same time, in the UK there are over 4.3
qualify as a surgeon and the taxing work hours to million people waiting for an operation, with
the reduced cost of automation. It takes 16 years to research showing that the number of surgeries
fully train a surgeon – this is a long-time, especially required per year is continually increasing. This

May 2020 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA! • p4