The Upcoming Role for Nursing and Assistive Robotics: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead.

As an integral part of patient care, nursing is required to constantly adapt to changes in the healthcare system, as well as the wider financial and societal environment. Among the key factors driving these changes is the aging of population. Combined with an existing shortage of nursing and caregiving professionals, accommodating for the patients and elderly needs within hospitals, elderly-care facilities and at a home setting, becomes a societal challenge.

Evaluation of how users interface with holographic augmented reality surgical scenes: Interactive planning MR-Guided prostate biopsies.

Background: User interfaces play a vital role in the planning and execution of an interventional procedure. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of using different user interfaces for planning transrectal robot-assisted MR-guided prostate biopsy (MRgPBx) in an augmented reality (AR) environment.

Method: End-user studies were conducted by simulating an MRgPBx system with end- and side-firing modes.

End-user evaluation of software-generated intervention planning environment for transrectal magnetic resonance-guided prostate biopsies.

Background: This study presents user evaluation studies to assess the effect of information rendered by an interventional planning software on the operator's ability to plan transrectal magnetic resonance (MR)-guided prostate biopsies using actuated robotic manipulators.

Methods: An intervention planning software was developed based on the clinical workflow followed for MR-guided transrectal prostate biopsies. The software was designed to interface with a generic virtual manipulator and simulate an intervention environment using 2D and 3D scenes.

A Platform Integrating Acquisition, Reconstruction, Visualization, and Manipulator Control Modules for MRI-Guided Interventions.

This work presents a platform that integrates a customized MRI data acquisition scheme with reconstruction and three-dimensional (3D) visualization modules along with a module for controlling an MRI-compatible robotic device to facilitate the performance of robot-assisted, MRI-guided interventional procedures. Using dynamically-acquired MRI data, the computational framework of the platform generates and updates a 3D model representing the area of the procedure (AoP). To image structures of interest in the AoP that do not reside inside the same or parallel slices, the MRI acquisition scheme was modified to collect a multi-slice set of intraoblique to each other slices; which are termed composing slices.

Cardiac ultrasonography over 4G wireless networks using a tele-operated robot.

This Letter proposes an end-to-end mobile tele-echography platform using a portable robot for remote cardiac ultrasonography. Performance evaluation investigates the capacity of long-term evolution (LTE) wireless networks to facilitate responsive robot tele-manipulation and real-time ultrasound video streaming that qualifies for clinical practice. Within this context, a thorough video coding standards comparison for cardiac ultrasound applications is performed, using a data set of ten ultrasound videos.

Medical telerobotic systems: current status and future trends.

Teleoperated medical robotic systems allow procedures such as surgeries, treatments, and diagnoses to be conducted across short or long distances while utilizing wired and/or wireless communication networks. This study presents a systematic review of the relevant literature between the years 2004 and 2015, focusing on medical teleoperated robotic systems which have witnessed tremendous growth over the examined period. A thorough insight of telerobotics systems discussing design concepts, enabling technologies (namely robotic manipulation, telecommunications, and vision systems), and potential applications in clinical practice is provided, while existing limitations and future trends are also highlighted.

A novel, general-purpose, MR-compatible, manually actuated robotic manipulation system for minimally invasive interventions under direct MRI guidance.

Background: Performing minimally invasive interventions under direct MRI guidance offers significant advantages. Required accessibility to the patient inside the MRI scanner is fairly limited, and employment of robotic assistance has been proposed. The development of MR-compatible robotic systems entails engineering challenges related to geometric constraints and the magnetic nature of the scanning environment.

An approach for preoperative planning and performance of MR-guided interventions demonstrated with a manual manipulator in a 1.5T MRI scanner.

Purpose: The aim of this work was to develop and test a general methodology for the planning and performance of robot-assisted, MR-guided interventions. This methodology also includes the employment of software tools with appropriately tailored routines to effectively exploit the capabilities of MRI and address the relevant spatial limitations.

Methods: The described methodology consists of: (1) patient-customized feasibility study that focuses on the geometric limitations imposed by the gantry, the robotic hardware, and interventional tools, as well as the patient; (2) stereotactic preoperative planning for initial positioning of the manipulator and alignment of its end-effector with a selected target; and (3) real-time, intraoperative tool tracking and monitoring of the actual intervention execution.