surgery of the future

MEDICAL developments in the future will include controlled micro-robots which will operate in parts of the body inaccessible to surgeons.

This was one of several developments revealed to 80 delegates at a conference on health engineering, organised by Faraday Foresight North West, based at Daresbury Laboratory where the event was held.

Mr Rory McCloy, surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary and pioneer of keyhole surgery, said that micro-robot surgery will "have huge impacts on the NHS in saved time, reduction of pain, less risk to patients and greater accuracy and reliability in difficult operations."

David Tolfree, director of Faraday Foresight, who organised the conference said : "Some of the techniques presented at the conference showed how ahead the north west is in moving back the frontiers of knowledge in the field of medical engineering, particularly robotic surgery."

He stressed the need for industry, working in partnership with the Government, to take up the challenge to benefit from the huge, growing, multi-billion pound markets for medical products. Geoffrey Piper, chief executive officer of the north west Business Leadership Team stressed the timeliness of the conference, following the recent announcement of the new Centre for Accelerator, Imaging and Medicine at Daresbury Laboratory.

The conference was co-sponsored by the DTI.