FW-HTF-P: Planning for the future of rural telerobotic surgical healthcare

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This Future of Work at the Human Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) Planning Grant project will contribute new understanding of how geographical and organizational separation between telerobotic surgical team members affects the use of telerobotic technology to reduce disparities between rural and urban healthcare access and outcomes. According to the Center for Disease Control, people who live in rural areas are more likely than urban residents to die prematurely from all five of the leading causes of death. With over 46 million Americans living in rural areas, the scope of this problem is considerable. Census data shows that the elderly -- who are generally most in need of specialty healthcare -- disproportionately live in rural communities. At the same time, healthcare workforce studies have demonstrated a critical lack of specialists in rural healthcare settings. This disparity leads to a lack of timely access to the life-saving specialty surgeries that are afforded to urban residents. Telerobotic surgery has the potential to effectively bring the benefits of skilled specialty operators to rural areas, however the barriers to the implementation and the testing of novel telerobotic solutions are not well understood. Recent studies suggest that the impact on the functioning of the operating room team due to the displacement of the operator during robotic surgery may outweigh any purely technological factor. This exploration into rural telerobotic operation will ultimately benefit the US healthcare system as a whole and could have a profoundly positive impact on patients living in rural US communities. The multidisciplinary approach employed will ensure that the voices of all stakeholders will be considered. This planning project brings together a team of experts in sociology, robotics, economics, cybersecurity, computer science, and healthcare to carry out fundamental research into telerobotic surgery using a multidisciplinary framework. The overarching goals of the project are to build a powerful new multidisciplinary research team to explore rural telerobotic operations, identify and prioritize the questions that need to be addressed, refine hypotheses, and inform future experimental design. To accomplish these goals, we will use three essential research tools: a stakeholder workshop; technical ideation and basic prototype development; and mock telerobotic surgical procedures. The multidisciplinary research group will focus its initial efforts on understanding the impact of geographic separation of the physician-operator from the operating room team as it relates to communication, hierarchy, and trust. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.