Members of a local high school robotics team got a chance to see how robots function in the medical field Saturday at Southwest Regional Medical Center.
The hospital’s department of Surgical Robotics hosted the educational event for the Blue Crew No. 7398 team, made up of local home-schooled and North Pike High School students, who saw a slide show on robotics, got a tour of the facility and received hands-on experience with the hospital’s surgical da Vinci robot.
Dr. Kevin Richardson, an OB-GYN and co-director of the hospital’s surgical robotics program, said this is the first time the department hosted such an event.
“I read an article in the paper about the robotics team and kept up with how well they were doing, and I wanted them to see how what they’re doing is connected to what I do on a day to day basis,” Richardson said.
He started the day off with a breakfast seminar on “The Robotic Revolution: From Sci-Fi Fantasy to High-Tech Reality.”
During the seminar, team members, coaches and parents learned about the history of robotics and how robots are used in health care.
“Never stop dreaming,” Richardson said. “History has proven that some of the most important ideas come from individuals who were first told that their idea had no future.”
Robotics team coach Walt Holifield said he was excited when Richardson emailed him about three weeks ago to come and see how the da Vinci robot works.
“I want the kids to have an appreciation for robots,” Holifield said, noting that the robots the team builds are capable of performing many tasks.
In an operating room, Richardson and his staff showed students a CT scan of a 34-year-old female’s pelvic mass — a problem he often uses the surgical robot to fix — and set out to fix the problem on a training mannequin.
Hospital staffer Ashickie Dawson said the students received a rare opportunity to see robots at work on the job and learn from the experience.
“In school they are being taught but here they are able to gain hands-on experience,” she said.
During the exercise, each student received an assignment to perform a major roles in the operating room — circulating operating room nurse, anesthesiologist, surgical scrub assistant and pathologist.
Richardson provided a step-by-step guide for students to see up close how the da Vinci robot is controlled and demonstrated various tools and instruments. He used a high-resolution robotic camera to locate the pelvic mass within the training mannequin and micro-scissors to dissect the growth.
“The future of medical robotics is not limited to technology,” he explained to the students while showing them the different parts of the robot. “There is much room for invention.”
The team learned how the delicate arms of the robot are used during the surgery.
“The arms of the robot are controlled by a surgical doctor,” Richardson said. “I do not even have to be in the room to control the robot. I am able to see inside the body due to high-tech camera.”
Once the operation concluded, students returned to a hospital classroom for an overview of what they learned.
Haley Moore, who plans to go into the medical field, said she learned how to connect robotics and medicine together.
“I now see how important robotics is in medicine,” she said. “Even though what we do on a team is fun and can become overwhelming at times, robotics can affect someone’s life for the better.”
Richardson’s main goal for the day was to give the kids advice that he never got as a child.
“I would have liked to have seen something like this when I was their age,” he said. “I had so much fun and I hope that this was eye opening for them.”
Holifield hopes the students are able to bring what they learned back to the drawing board.
“I hope that this will give them new ideas of how to solve problems,” he said. “I hope they think creatively and in a different way. They’re apart of this bleeding edge of technology.”
Richardson plans to have a day once a year where the robot is showcased.
“I hope this could be a community-wide event one day, because a lot of people are unaware that the same technology that is being used in bigger hospitals such as Jackson is right here in their hometown,” he said.
