Exploring the Future of Theatre: The Smart Surgery Virtual Conference
COVID-19 has caused significant backlogs in surgical procedures; this timely virtual session will explore how we can lean on technological advancements in surgery to help ease the current pressure NHS surgeons face and to future-proof the sector for generations to come.
This is an exciting time for NHS surgery. The future of surgery will bring innovative technologies, enhanced understanding of diseases, and wider collaboration among experts and innovators to ultimately improve patient care. The partnership between patients and clinicians will of course remain at the centre of healthcare.
The RCS Future of Surgery report and other international Forecasts predict that Surgery will be transformed over the next two decades using four groups of technology developments likely to lead the overhaul:
- Minimally Invasive Surgery (including robotics): Surgery has moved towards less invasive interventions, with fewer but more-precise cuts and incisions to reduce the impact on patients. Surgery is shifting from seeing, feeling, and manipulating organs and tissues through the surgeon’s own eyes and hands, to using an intelligent robotic medium to see and intervene inside the body.
- Imaging, VR & AR: Imaging technology is key to the delivery of less invasive interventions, allowing the visualization of internal structures and organs with reduced impact on the patient. In the next few years, advances in imaging technology will deliver better guidance during a surgical procedure and improve accuracy.
- Big Data & Genomics (including leadership training): The role of data collection and analysis will increase in future years. The potential for this resource to enable better prediction of disease and more personalised and effective treatments is huge. However, patients and the public must remain informed partners in every stage of this journey, and standards on the use of their data must be enforced. Investment and leadership are also necessary to bring the healthcare system and its organisations into the future
- Specialised Interventions: In the long-term, there will be more complex and specialised interventions. The delivery of cell-based therapies, bio-printed tissues, organs, ‘intelligent’ prosthetics, or animal to human transplants will require specialised teams working together in multidisciplinary centres.
For patients, technological developments all promise the potential for better outcomes and, in places, more local treatment.
Join us at the Exploring the Future of Theatre Virtual Conference on the 18th of March 2021 as we explore the advancements and concerns that a scale-up in innovative surgical technology will bring in the not too distant future.
Research sources for Exploring the Future of Theatre: RCS Future of Surgery Report, The America College of surgery, NHS England
