A tourist visits the vascular intervention surgical robot at the 2024 Beijing Science and Technology Week. (PHOTO: VCG)
By?Staff?Reporters
Among the many amazing innovations displayed at the 2024 Beijing Science and Technology Week that kicked off on May 25, an advanced medical device stands out.
It is a surgical robot, ETcath. The domestically developed version is a vascular intervention surgical robot that aided by a digital subtraction angiography machine and an AI image processing platform can autonomously perform surgical processes for ailments such as myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction, and tumors in human blood vessels.
The angiography machine can be rotated over 200 degrees, enabling clear detection of the internal condition of blood vessels. The AI image processing platform integrates the knowledge and experience of top domestic experts to support doctors in making more optimized surgical treatment plans. The surgical robot works like a surgeon's hands, precisely executing surgical steps such as guidewire manipulation, balloon delivery, and stent placement.
The robot can perceive obstacles in blood vessels real-time and provide immediate feedback, ensuring a more precise and efficient surgical process while significantly reducing the risk of postoperative complications.
Medical staff can remotely control the robot, thus avoiding potential radiation injuries that may occur during traditional interventional surgeries. The application of this device can alleviate the uneven distribution of medical resources to an extent.
The trio will conduct a series of experiments in fields such as life science, fluid physics, combustion science and materials science. Notably, this is the first time that fruit flies have been taken on a Chinese space mission as experimental subjects. What made scientists choose fruit flies? What experiment will they undergo?