Marianna Optimist Club Activities
By Don Jones - December 30th, 2008
"Can the "M" Robot be trusted?"
James Cowart, a technical representative for Siemens Medical Diagnostics, the world’s largest manufacturer of Medical Analytic Robots, spoke before the Marianna Optimist Club Members again on December 30, 2008. He last spoke before the members on January 22nd, 2008, when he revealed the nuts and bolts of his highly technical vocation.
Cowart literally entered the field of medical diagnostic equipment by accident. Originally his interest was in becoming a race car mechanic. He did briefly become a race car mechanic, however he injured his back while replacing an engine, making it extremely painful to bend over the fender of a race car all day. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending how one looks at the situation, this accident curtailed his race car mechanic career, but because he had the mechanical, vocational training in high school auto mechanics, and a degree in mechanical engineering from Auburn University, he was able to transition into the relative, new field of ‘Bio Mechanics, and was eventually hired by Siemens Medical Diagnostics as one of their north Florida technical representatives.
Cowart claims that, due to today’s advancement in robotic technology, analytical equipment is able to out-perform earlier models by as much as three-thousand percent. In the beginning, such equipment could perhaps make one analysis per hour, while today’s models can process three thousand samples per hour. It’s even possible to determine the truthfulness of a witness, today, by simply monitoring the temperature fluctuations in the skin of an individual’s face while under cross examination, or during questioning by police. This same temperature variance can detect a tumor in the breast of a woman without the, sometimes, painful mammogram.
Today’s analytical efficiency makes effective treatment timely and recovery possible. Ultimately, because of anticipated future advancements, critically ill patients may be able to check into a hospital and out, with a good prognosis, on the same day.
Following Cowart’s talk, the audience wanted to know how prominent the use of medical robotics was in the local area. In total, his estimation was twenty to thirty machines were in use today by hospitals and clinics in the Dothan, Marianna, and Panama City area. He, valued the machines at two, to three hundred thousand dollars apiece. Additionally, he mentioned there were newer, more capable machines, valued at twice that amount coming to the area very soon. Ultimately, he finished with the following warning: "No matter how fast or accurate the prescribed medication or course of treatment, in order for it to work, one must have the faith to take it!"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment