The patient, a sedated live pig, was nowhere near Switzerland though. The doctor in Zurich successfully performed an endoscopy on the pig located 5,780 miles away in Hong Kong.
The procedure was part of a joint study between the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and ETH Zurich. The doctor in Switzerland used a PlayStation 3 Move video game controller to carry out the procedure. The latency was below 300 milliseconds the entire time, meaning the equipment responded to the doctor’s commands in near-real time.
The success of this experiment brings us one step closer to being able to perform remote surgeries on human patients. There are significant benefits to remote operations, such as getting a specialist when one isn’t available locally, or conducting procedures in remote areas. Theoretically, doctors on Earth could even operate on astronauts in space.
