Diagnostic+and+therapeutic+tools

= = __**Diagnostic and therapeutic tools**__

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__**Robotic Surgery**__

Also known as 'computer-assisted surgery' and 'robot-assisted surgery', robotic surgery refers to the technological developments used in medicine to support or carry out surgical procedures.

The use of robotics in surgery presents various advantages and disadvantages:


 * __Advantages__ **

Reducing Pain: Can significantly reduce pain and discomfort associated with surgical procedures. Robotic surgery uses tiny instruments, so the incision is very small, smaller than a human surgeon could achieve.

Greater Access: Since robotic tools can be very small, they can access areas of the body that human surgeons cannot reach. These tools can move through the body very easily, which would be impossible for a human surgeon to access as organs and other vital parts of the body would be in the way of necessary incisions.


 * __Disadvantages__**

Cost: Robotic surgery uses very new, complex and relatively expensive technology. The first ever robotic surgery cost around $1 million dollars.

Precision: A robot which can perform surgeries with pinpoint precision is, after all, a machine. A small miscalculation by the surgeon handling the controls may result in healthy tissues being destroyed. As this technology is still developing, there may be few surgeons who can control the robots with the required precision.

The video below outlines the technology used in robotic surgery:

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__Prosthetic Devices__


Prosthetic devices are artificial components designed to replace a part of the human body that is missing, either due to accident or a birth defect.



__Diagnostic Surgery__
CAD (Computer-Aided Diagnosis) uses imaging techniques such as X-ray, MRI and ultrasound to detect abnormalities in the human body. It can be used in the diagnosis of diseases and illnesses such as:


 * Breast Cancer: used in screening mammography (X-ray of the female breast), which can then detect cancerous tumours.
 * Lung Cancer: Computed tomography is used to detect lesions in the lung.
 * Colon cancer: CAD can be used to detect colorectal polyps.



The video below shows CAD in action in the analysis of a lung scan:

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__Patient Monitoring__
The monitoring of the patient is critical in many aspects of healthcare such
 * as intensive care
 * operations
 * emergency rooms
 * recovery

Patient monitoring involves the monitoring of vital stats of the patient such
 * as blood pressure
 * heart rate

The machine has sensors which are attached to the patient if the status had gone in too a dangerous range whether too high or too then a signal is sent to the doctor and nurse.

**Advantages**
 * Cheaper than using personnel
 * Quick and reliable
 * Can be used in hospitals or homes
 * Easy to learn how to use
 * Accurate and fairly precise

**Disadvantages**


 * Dependant on a form of electricity and electrical hardware
 * Some training needed
 * Certain things for patients can only be monitored by humans, such as skin color or swelling in a patient's body
 * Cost of equipment and initial implementation of system may be very expensive

__Individualized IT solutions for disabled people__
IT can be used to provide solutions for various physical impairments and diabilities such as the following:


 * Mobility impairments **

IT solutions include:
 * 1) **Keyboard guards and overlays:** A sheet of thick plastic with holes lets you guide your fingers to just the right key. Useful if you have cerebral palsy or a tremor that makes you depress more than one key at a time, or if too many errant keystrokes precede or follow a correct keypress.
 * 2) **Switches and scanning software**: If you can take one action reliably (blinking an eye, flexing your wrist, jostling your knee, or, in the best-known case, sipping and puffing on a straw), then you can acutate an on/off switch. Since computers are binary devices, that’s all the ability you need. While still laborious, switch access is now much less so than, say, back in the mid-1980s, when quadriplegics’ use of sip-and-puff switches began to be covered as a human-interest story in newspapers. (Just as people seem to know the phrase “carpal-tunnel syndrome” but nothing about repetitive-strain injuries in general, the use of personal computers by blowing on a straw seems to be a fact widely known in the absence of other disability knowledge.) Note, though, that the days of sip-and-puff switches are largely behind us. In the 21st century, “switch access” may still rely on a single on/off signal, but hardware switches are now more sophisticated (requiring, say, a simple head nudge). Software now does a better job of interpreting and predicting the intent behind that signal: Your onscreen keyboard may divide and subdivide itself into quadrants for you until the right letter appears under your cursor and also predict the words you wish to type.

**Visual impairments**
 * If you have a relatively modest visual impairment then all you will need is screen manification


 * Although if you are blind that you can not see the monitor there is something called screen reader
 * **Screen reader:** a program that reads aloud on screen text, menus and icons


 * Learning disabilities **

People who suffer from dyslexia and other learning difficulties usually find the following IT solutions useful:


 * speech output
 * screen magnification

__Accessibility__
Accessibility involves making allowances for characteristics a person cannot readily change. examples of its application to websites:
 * A deaf person cannot stop being deaf when confronted with a soundtrack.
 * A blind person cannot stop being blind when confronted with visible words and images.
 * A learning-disabled person cannot reset the functions of the brain when confronted with the same.
 * A person with a mobility impairment cannot suddenly begin to move when confronted with a navigation task.
 * A unilingual anglophone cannot suddenly understand French when confronted with that language.


 * Access for the Blind and Visually Impaired **

The relevant technique is audio description: Narration, read out loud by a human being (or, in the future, by voice synthesis), that succinctly explains visual details not apparent from the audio alone

**Access for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing**

The technique of record is captioning: Rendering of speech and other audible information //in the written language of the audio//.

Two old-media techniques are in use in this domain:
 * Language Accessibility **
 * 1) **Dubbing**: Replacing vocal tracks with vocal tracks in another language.
 * 2) **Subtitling:** Translating speech (and, in specific limited cases, onscreen type) into one or more written languages added to the image.

__Rehabilitation__
Assistive technology (also known as adaptive technology) refers to assistive, adaptive and rehabilitation devices for people with disabilities, such as, for example, a hearing aid.

It can be used to help all sorts of disabilities such as:


 * Learning disabilities