Technological breakthroughs in fields such as robot-facilitated telesurgery, sensors embedded in band-aids that can send an infection alert to clinicians and haptic coupling technology driven in part by the adult entertainment industry are in danger of being hampered by the bureaucratic inertia that plagues healthcare, a leading surgeon says.
Nepean Hospital urologist and head of surgery at the Sydney Medical School Mohamed Khadra told the Australian Telehealth Conference in Sydney recently that existing technology such as the da Vinci surgical suite he uses for minimally invasive prostatectomy at Nepean can and should be harnessed to expand the reach of telehealth. Otherwise, healthcare will be left behind as technology moves forward at a faster and faster rate, he said.
