Doctor rating sites will grow in importance

Doctor rating websites can provide you with plenty of information about a doctor in a certain specialty. They can even give you top doctors in robotic assisted surgery.

Robotic assisted surgery has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for more than 10 years now. It is viewed as the next-generation surgery by many health experts. Enabling physicians to conduct less invasive surgeries, robotics is used for a variety of procedures, including hysterectomies, lung-cancer removal, prostate cancer, heart-valve repairs and gastrointestinal surgery.

Surgeons in robotics surgery look more like they are in a fighter plan than an operating room. Sitting at a console and looking at a three-dimensional image of the targeted area, the surgeon has two controllers at his disposal. Aiming his fingers down, a robotic clamp tilts down. Moving his wrist up and down, the robotic wrist follows suit. Whole arm movements are mimicked by the robot. The computer-controlled robot arms follow the surgeons every move.

Benefits of robotic surgery are: less scarring; quicker hospital stays; lower risk of infection because more of the human element is taken out of the equation; faster recovery time; less post-surgery pain; and less blood loss during surgery.

One downside to the procedure is the robotic arms take away the feeling sensation that surgeons have during a surgery. The feel of tissue or ligaments can give doctors a sense that something else may be a factor in the patient's problem. Another downside in the cost of the robotic machine. The cost ranges from $950,000 to $1.3 million, not counting the required continual maintenance. The cost makes the machine far from a common piece of equipment in hospitals, meaning that you may have to travel quite a distance to have robotic surgery.

With robotics technology, long-distance telesurgery will soon be a possibility, where a top surgeon could conduct surgery on a patient half a world away. It would allow a top surgeon in a certain field to be available for an operation regardless of where the patient was located. With two functioning work sites, the surgeon would be able to conduct the operation. Despite some of the obstacles still to overcome, some experts believe telesurgery could be just a few years away.

Remote surgeries would also allow for the best and brightest surgeons to be called in should there be a complication with a surgery. The contacted physician would not need much of a briefing as he would be able to see everything himself or herself and, if connected to the same robotics system, could go and make any checks the individual felt necessary.

When remote surgery is available, how much more important will doctor review sites become when people will not be anywhere near as bound by geography as they are now for their medical care? When you have the option of any surgeon in the world being able to conduct your surgery – and you being able to remain in your local hospital - you will want to have as much knowledge as possible. Doctor rating will play in a definite role in providing that information.