Future of Work

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Narrator

15 years ago, Bryan Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska was one of several hospitals pioneering the use of surgical cobots. Now, they are an accepted part of surgical practices across the country. I'm Kathy Bliss. I'm a food nutrition manager for Lincoln Public Schools. I am going to have surgery here with Dr. Jobes, and it's gonna be robotics for my diverticulitis. I'm hoping it will be a short recovery for me. (soft music) I'm sure Dr. Jobes will do a great job because I've heard nothing but great things about him. -

Women

Kathy, how are you doing? Yes, I feel very nervous. -

Narrator

Surgery is so intimate, and the stakes are often so high. It might seem frightening to have a machine holding the scalpels. But for many procedures, cobots operate more accurately and more safely than doctors on their own. Okay, so let's go ahead and prepare to dock the robot. Just gonna dry up the robot. Diana is going to direct him. The robot that I'll be using on Kathy's operation is the Da Vinci XI surgical platform. It is the latest technology that is available for what we call multi-arm robotic surgery. It has four robotic arms that we will introduce into Cathy's body. One of those arms controls a camera. We're going to put the camera in. And then there are going to be three instrument arms under my control. So the surgeon puts his or her head into the console and gets immersed inside of the body cavity. So it's almost like being inside the abdomen in a way that we could never do before. (monitors beeping) (upbeat classical music) Let's... let's switch arm four back to the scissor. Cobots have brought new levels of precision control and safety to surgery, but does this current generation of robots cost jobs? I don't think any jobs were lost because a hospital has invested in a surgical robot. We have a circulating nurse in the operating room who has a certain level of expertise in handling the robot, troubleshooting the robot. We still have an anesthesiologist. I still have a surgical assistant. We still have to have surgical technologist or what we commonly refer to as a scrub tech who hands instruments. But instead of handing the instrument to me, they're putting the instrument into the robot for me to use. So all of the necessary jobs that are required for me to take care of patient still exist.