Research Groups

Telesurgery is a unique technology from the point of view of research groups.  It is very much an interdisciplinary area (Moses et al., 2008).  The diversity of the actor network shows this – doctors, government regulators, and engineers all impact the research which is being done on telesurgery.  One author summarizes these actor-network interactions as follows:

Academic researchers, such as the author of this paper, can contribute to progress in these [robotics] areas, but we cannot do it alone. To an even greater extent than in other subspecialties of robotics, industry has unique expertise that is absolutely essential for successful development and deployment of medical robot systems. Also, the surgeons who will use these systems have unique insights into the problems to be solved and into what will and will not be accepted in the operating room. All groups must work together for progress to be made, and they must work together practically from the very beginning.  (Taylor, 2006)

Today's new technologies are increasingly dependent on interdisciplinary groups of people, and telesurgery is no exception.  This piece by Taylor highlights some important points of the actor network.  He argues that the most rapid progress will be made once the actor network reaches a more developed stage, with actors accepting their roles, noting the interdependence of researchers.  He also implies that the network is currently in an early stage, with actors not yet fully accepting their roles.