What We’re Reading: 09/27/19

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A few highlights from around the web that made it into our feeds this week.

Paging Dr. Robot

Robotic surgery is a different kind of surgical art, one that requires a new form of accuracy and elegance. This fantastic article follows a robotic surgery forefather, Pier Giu­lianotti, and through his passion and expertise chronicles the rise of robots, the impact they have today, and potential for the future.

“I felt the small robotic hands of the robot were a prolongation of my own. If you are used to having flat vision, and you pass into 3-D, you feel you are immersed inside the human body,” says Dr. Giulianotti. “It was a fantastic journey—the interior of the anatomy, the shadow of little vessels and nerves. I immediately fell in love.” (From newyorker.com)

In an emergency, where ambulances take patients differs by race, study finds

When a recent study looked at the racial disparity within ambulatory transport to E.D.s, researchers were left with big questions. Why are black and Hispanic patients more likely to be transported to safety-net hospitals compared to white patients living in the same zip code?

While the data clearly shows disparity, the reason and the effects of going to a closer hospital or to one that may be more familiar are still unknown. This research serves as an important jumping-off point for further study into the observed racial disparity. (From statnews.com)

Window in the Drapes 

“After years of lying unperturbed, the most hidden corners of our bodies are exposed and manipulated by surgeons, then put back together again, all in the course of a morning or afternoon.” 

In this essay, Dr. Abdul-Kareem Ahmed, a neurosurgery resident, takes us back to his first year in medical school—to the first time he stepped foot in the O.R. and watched a surgery. He recalls the nerves, the wonder, the reverence he felt, the awe. It’s an experience he’ll never forget. (From nytimes.com)

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