The next frontier in healthcare 

In short, greater use of robotic assistance can have benefits on multiple levels. Robotics appeal to hospitals because they allow them to implement new care scenarios with better access to complex interventions. They are safer for interventionalists, because they reduce radiation exposure, specifically in interventional therapy and in surgeries that require intra-operative imaging. And first and foremost, they are beneficial for patients, because higher precision and better standardization will result in better outcomes, fewer complications, and a reduction in revision procedures.

But doesn’t the use of robotics come at a cost? Do we not prefer our doctors to be human beings? What if robots cause complications, as happened in the early years of robotic surgery with robots that assisted in hip replacement surgery? How, in other words, should medical and specifically interventional robotics be judged from an ethical point of view? How should robots in any field be judged from an ethical point of view? 

Many of the ethical discussions around robotics in healthcare come down to two aspects: risk-benefit assessment and the degree of “autonomy” of a robot. Regarding autonomy: the robot complements the work of the physician, taking over some tasks and allowing the physician to focus more on clinical decision-making. The robot won’t “replace” the physician. It is autonomous in that it performs small, precise moves that are better done by a machine, but it always remains an extension of the doctor’s capabilities. The physicians remain in the driver’s seat. They oversee what robotics does at any given time. 

When it comes to risk-benefit assessment, it is worth keeping in mind that a robotic system doesn’t simply enter the medical arena. It has to be approved, and it has to thoroughly demonstrate its benefits. This, of course, is not as straightforward as it sounds. Exactly how much responsibility a machine should have is a discussion that will yield different answers in different types of medical disciplines and different kinds of care scenarios. However, there is a fundamental truth: As soon as patient outcomes are better with robotics than without it, it might in fact be unethical not to use it.