The First Remote, Robotic Surgery
"Surgeons Here, Patient There" -- Wired
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,46946,00.html
"Robot-Assisted Surgery Makes Transatlantic Cut" -- Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59617-2001Sep19.html
"Surgeons in U.S. Perform Operation in France Via Robot" -- National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/09/0919_robotsurgery.html
"Surgery Spans Miles of Ocean, Wires" -- LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000075584sep20.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Da%5Fsection
"Transatlantic robot-assisted telesurgery" -- Nature [.pdf]
http://www.nature.com/nature/prepub/rubino.html
"Inter-continental robot surgery" -- BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1370000/1370875.stm
European Institute for Telesurgery [javascript]
http://www.ircad.com/
WebSurg: World Electronic Book of Surgery [.pdf, Flash, RealPlayer]
http://www.websurg.com/wshome/
The Tech Museum: Robotics: Sensing, Thinking, Acting [RealPlayer, Shockwave]
http://www.thetech.org/robotics/
On September 7, doctors in the United States performed the first long distance operation, with surgeons in New York performing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy on a patient in France. The surgery was successful, and the patient was discharged from the hospital with no complications 48 hours later. Needless to say, the potential uses of such remote, robotic technology are boundless, not only in medical settings but in search and rescue missions, scientific discovery missions, and countless other arenas. The following resources cover the recent surgery and provide some additional information on the technology.

Wired, the Washington Post, National Geographic, and the LA Times all report on the surgery, detailing for a lay audience the technological challenges of such a procedure as well as the advances that have made it possible. Nature magazine has released a brief communication about the surgery to coincide with a press conference that was held Wednesday. A June report from the BBC shows how rapidly these technologies have advanced in a few short months. The surgery was performed at the European Institute of Telesurgery, and their site offers information on their courses and a panoramic view of the operating room. WebSurg, a "virtual surgical university" launched by Jacques Marescaux and his team at the Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l'Appareil Digestif (IRCAD), has posted videos from what it calls the "Lindbergh Operation" as well as a demo of the virtual university (additional content requires a subscription). Finally, readers interested in robotics in general may enjoy a stop at the Tech Museum's exhibit on Robotics, which covers some of the history of robotics, the ethical questions, robot art, and more. [TK]
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