The healing art may be ancient Chinese, but the modern technology augmenting it in most cases is pure American. The da Vinci Surgical System involves state of the art robotic technology and features a 3D high-definition magnification system and instruments able to maneuver with greater precision than the human wrist and fingers. This allows the acupuncturists to both locate and successfully target hard to reach acupoints, such as those on the scrotum and anal verge. This expands the number of conditions amenable to acupuncture significantly.
An acupuncturist and acupuncture anesthetist perform robotically-assisted acupuncture on a patient who has been feeling kind of tired lately |
The improved vision and manual dexterity enjoyed by providers using the da Vinci system has allowed acupuncture to catch up to other alternative medical fields, some of which have been incorporating modern technology into their treatments for years. Chiropractors, practitioners who treat a variety of musculoskeletal conditions and asthma for some reason, have historically used a variety of high tech electronic devices to locate abnormalities in the spine called subluxations. The subluxations can then be treated using a variety of manual spinal adjustment techniques.
Fishman, who is a pioneer in robotically-assisted minimally-invasive acupuncture fertility treatments, is already looking ahead. "As science progresses, and we continue to scale down robot technology, the practice of acupuncture will be taken completely out of the hands of the practitioner, allowing full mental focus on diagnosis." He envisions a time in the future when even robot-assisted acupuncture will seem old fashioned and the practice of nanopuncture will cure us of all disease.
1 comment:
This is fascinating. I had no clue that they had gotten this far with it. I mean I guess I would have thought it was possible because if they can do keyhole surgery with a robot, I would think that acupuncture could also work. But that is very neat that they are already utilizing. I am curious about the cost.
Hannah Holland @ Berkeley Community ACU
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