Interesting to think how close this is. They haven't begun human trials, but just the idea of robotics in our hearts is exciting. Although this is tethered to a human for surgical purposes, the idea of a small robot crawling though your veins to fix things is just the beginning. Remove the tether to a human, make it wireless, give it some AI, and you've got a full-time doctor helping you out. Baby steps...
MAY 7, 2007
Developments to Watch
Edited by Neil Gross
"Robots are getting more adept at procedures that can tax accomplished surgeons. The latest example is Heart-Lander, a tiny, 10mm-long robot that crawls like an inchworm across the heart.
Developed by Cameron Riviere and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and Johns Hopkins University, the bot is connected by a tether to a joystick operated by a human surgeon. It's inserted through an entry point below the patient's rib cage, a minimally invasive procedure that doesn't require cracking open the chest. The bot then crawls to the desired location on the heart, unperturbed by the organ's rhythmic beating. Once in position, it can burn away diseased tissue, help place a needle to inject drugs, or attach electrodes used to stimulate heart muscle—all the while relaying visual and other sensory data back to the medical team.
The device has already been tested in open-heart surgery on pigs. The researchers have formed a company, HeartLander Surgical, to commercialize the breakthrough."
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_19/c4033088.htm
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