Remote Robotic Surgery in Less Developed Regions: What are the Demands on Artificial Intelligence?
Prof. Roch Glitho
Ericsson/ENCQOR Senior Industrial Research Chair Department of Computer Science, Concordia University, Montreal – Canada
Abstract:
Robotic surgery has emerged in the early 2000s and enables a robot (under the full control of an expert surgeon) to carry out surgeries. It offers a wide range of benefits such as improved precision, enhanced surgeon dexterity, reduced tremor, and improved ergonomic conditions. Patients benefit since it incurs less blood loss, less pain, and results in reduced trauma and shorter recuperation time. Society in general might therefore benefit. However, robotic surgery requires highly specialized skills that might not be readily available in remote regions. Let us assume for instance an expert surgeon in Lubumbashi instructing and controlling (through a console) a robot operating a patient in a remote village. A network is of course needed to carry the messages exchanged between the surgeon console and the robot. The requirements on these networks are very stringent. The maximum delay for instance is 1 millisecond. Now, what happens if some of the messages arrive late or get simply lost? Could artificial intelligence help in predicting the content of these lost/delayed messages? Could it even help in predicting the messages that will be lost/delayed in the future in order to predict their content long before they are actually lost/ delayed? Remote robotic surgery does indeed pose very high demands on artificial intelligence. In this speech, we will present the basics of remote robotic surgery, discuss the demands on artificial intelligence, introduce some emerging solutions, and sketch a vision for the future.
Roch H. Glitho received the M.Sc. degree in business economics from the University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France, M.Sc. degrees in pure mathematics and computer science from the University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, and the Ph.D. degree (Tech.Dr.) in tele-informatics from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. He is a Full Professor at Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada and an Extraordinary Professor with the Computer Science Programme, University of Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa. He holds the Ericsson / ENCQOR Senior Industrial Research Chair on Cloud and Edge Computing for 5G and Beyond at Concordia University, and has held a Canada Research Chair in End-User Service Engineering from 2010 to 2020 at the same University. He has performed research, development and product management in industry and has held several senior technical positions, such as a Senior Specialist, a Principal Engineer, and an Expert with Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, and Montreal, QC, Canada. Dr. Glitho has served as the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Communications Magazine and IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. He has also served as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.
Roch H. Glitho a reçu un diplôme de maitrise en économie d’entreprise de l’Université de Grenoble en France et un autre diplôme de maitrise en mathématiques pures et informatique de l’Université de Genève en Suisse. Il a aussi obtenu un doctorat en téléinformatique du Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) de Stockholm en Suède. Il est professeur titulaire à l’Université Concordia, Montréal, au Canada et professeur extraordinaire au department d’informatique, Université de Western Cape, Cape Town en Afrique du Sud. Il est titulaire de la Chaire de recherche industrielle senior Ericsson/ENCQOR sur l’infonuagique et l’edge computing pour la 5G et au-delà à l’Université Concordia, et a été titulaire d’une chaire de recherche du Canada en ingénierie des services aux utilisateurs finaux de 2010 à 2020 à la même université. Il a effectué des recherches, du développement et de la gestion de produits dans l’industrie et a occupé plusieurs postes techniques supérieurs, tels que ceux de spécialiste principal, d’ingénieur principal et d’expert chez Ericsson, Stockholm, Suède, et Montréal, QC, Canada. Prof. Glitho a été rédacteur en chef du IEEE Communications Magazine and IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. Il a également servi comme orateur distingué ( distinguished lecturer) pour l’IEEE.