talk will discuss ongoing NIH-funded research at Johns Hopkins University and
Carnegie-Mellon University to develop technology and systems addressing fundamental
limitations in current microsurgical practice, using vitreoretinal surgery as
our focus. Vitreoretinal surgery is the
most technically demanding ophthalmologic discipline and addresses prevalent
sight-threatening conditions in areas of growing need. At the center of our planned approach is a
“surgical workstation” system interfaced to a stereo visualization subsystem
and a family of novel sensors, instruments, and robotic devices. The capabilities of these components
individually address important limitations of current practice; together they
provide a modular, synergistic, and extendable system that enables
computer-interfaced technology and information processing to work in
partnership with surgeons to improve clinical care and enable novel therapeutic
approaches.
The
talk will also talk briefly about other medical robotics research at Johns
Hopkins University to develop systems that combine innovative algorithms,
robotic devices, imaging systems, sensors, and human-machine interfaces to work
cooperatively with surgeons in the planning and execution of surgery and other
interventional procedures. Here, we will
pay special attention to joint projects between JHU and Intuitive Surgical,
including our efforts to develop an open-source “Surgical Assistant
Workstation” software environment to promote research and technology transfer
activities.