Development of a Telepresence Surgery System.

Ninety percent of all deaths in wartime occur on the battlefield, before a surgeon can treat the casualty. Rapid evacuation has decreased the number of casualties dying of wounds after reaching a field hospital, but has not significantly reduced the overall death rate. The most likely reason that battlefield mortality remains high is that definitive surgical care is not available during the critical first hour after wounding. The effectiveness of trauma care is also limited by the relatively small number of surgeons with adequate experience to treat traumatic injuries. Because of prevailing peacetime conditions, fewer and fewer military medical corpsmen and surgeons have adequate experience with the types of battlefield wounds they will encounter in the line of duty. SRI has developed a revolutionary new technology-telepresence surgery-that can address both of these problems. To address the need for more rapid intervention, telepresence can enable surgeons located at field hospitals to directly and immediately treat wounded combatants at the most forward echelons of care. To improve surgeon training, SRIs telepresence technology can also be used as an advanced surgical simulation and training tool that provides a realistic training medium for practicing combat surgery in peacetime conditions.