Since the start of 21st Century mankind has made tremendous stride into the field of Robotics. The word Robot comes from a 1920s Czech science fiction play robota, a word of servitude.This word entered English language as robot and has been with us since, as a description for autonomous or semiautonomous machines.
Today, both International and national industry depends on robots to do several manufacturing and manipulation programmes. Next could be a robot being an Anaesthesiologist. Robot adoption is being aided to cut costs and increase productivity. But does is really solve the purpose? The aggressive introduction of robots in the medical world is making doctors more and more dependent on them and therefore a more dependent medical society.
Intelligence is God’s gift to mankind. Is it ethically correct to create artificial intelligence? If robots start replacing human anaesthesiologists, we will have to deal with serious issues like unemployment. Anaesthesiologists if deprived of their work may not find any means to channelize their energies and harness their expertise.
The assumption of researchers is that robotic assistance during anaesthesia will make our profession more enjoyable and even safer, simplifying the documentation, and allowing us to focus on the patient rather than the equipment and the paperwork. The risk is overreliance on the technology and a paradoxical drop in vigilance. Some of decision support systems have been tested in various situations where limited vigilance leads to a constant level of insufficient performance, from missed alarm settings to missed drug administration.
The introduction of Sedasys, a semi-automated propofol delivery system used by non-anaesthetic health care providers (gastroenterologists) is controversial because, at this stage, a machine is unable to adjust the level of sedation to the anticipated discomfort of discrete parts of the procedure, or to the specific skill and speed of a given operator. If a patient gets overly sedated, as is possible even with an experienced practitioner, Sedasys will not lift the jaw or ventilate the patient using a face mask, and there is no reversal agent for propofol.
Our job requires human touch. Robots will never be able to substitute for the caring part, the compassion and service of human anaesthesiologist. The robots cannot replace humans rather they serve humans.