|
|
11 Feb, 2012 Sat
|
|
|
|
The final film of the series looks at a frontier of a very different kind. The opposite of the high-cost, high-technology world that people expect to coincide with cutting-edge medical frontiers.
We follow the work of orthopaedic surgeon, Steve Mannion, who has devoted his life to working in far-flung and under-resourced corners of the world. Originally a trauma- and war-surgeon working for the Red Cross and M「decins Sans Frontières, Steve worked in countries like Rwanda during the genocide in the 1990s, and the Afghanistan wars.
Most of his work is done in places where there is no technology and no money. So everything he does has to be done through sheer human ingenuity, which Steve has in spades. His mantra? “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
Our film follows him to Malawi, one of the poorest countries on Earth. There, he has several clinics for children and adults with club feet. In Malawi, as in Britain, somewhere between 1-2 children per 1,000 are born with this deformity. |
|
At the biological frontier of medicine, the big challenge is to harness the body's own repair system. What if we could grow and regenerate parts of our own body? It sounds like science fiction, but many scientists and doctors believe they have already found the answer.
They are called stem cells and they exist in every one of our bodies.
Amazing claims have been made about stem cells, which have been the subject of Professor Winston's own research work for years. An internet search on ‘stem cell cures' gives nearly 200 million responses. Miracle cures for every disease under the sun are promised, most of them available in countries such as Argentina and Siberia where medical regulations are less strict. There is a reason for this – the miracle cures are, as yet, completely without medical evidence. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence, as the internet will show. But real medical trials are only just beginning. |
|
科技日新月異，連帶高科技的醫療技術近年亦有明顯的進步。或許數年之後，替人類進行手術的不再是醫生，而是「機械人」。
在《超級醫生》中，教授Winston試用一款先進的手術機器，為兩位病人進行外科手術。然而這座昂貴的機器是否真的可以為病人提供管用的服務？其中一位病人會發表接受機械人以無須揭開頭骨的方法，為他進行腦部手術後的感想
Technology is transforming what our hospitals and medical practice will look like in years to come. Ask anyone on the street how they imagined the future of medicine to be in, say, 100 years, and they are likely to respond “robots”. And they would be right.
But we do not have to wait 100 years. They are already here, and they are already operating on us.
In this programme, Professor Winston looks at the new, cutting-edge surgical robots in the UK and around the world. He questions how useful they are – whether they are just big, expensive toys, or whether they are really providing us, the patients, with a useful service?
We see a tiny baby under-going a robotic operation in Leeds and find out it could just as easily have the operation without the robot. Is this really the best thing for the baby? Is it the best thing for medicine? Two very different questions, indeed.
We also see one of the first ever brain tumour operations in the world. Space technology has made the extraordinary Canadian ‘Neuroarm’ robot possible – not only can the surgeon see exactly what is going on inside the patient's brain without having to take off the skull, but they can feel it as well. A robot with a sense of touch. |
|
|
