I don’t have any stats to back that up.

No offense taken. I spend half my day talking people out of surgery

I suspect There will always be surgery. Some problems are simply a mechanical problem that can’t be fixed any other way. How can a hernia be fixed without surgery? It’s a structural issue. How can dead bowel be fixed without removing it?

Surgery will always be a component, but you’re right that it’ll always be changing. And we already do much less surgery on people than we used to and we use minimally invasive techniques.

If I know one thing it would be to never assume we know what is possible in the future.

But I can safely say that AI and robotics is not anywhere close to autonomous surgery right now. But who knows in 30 years where things will be.

I do robotic surgery.

As it stands, the robot does not make any decisions or do anything at all. It purely does the movement we do with our hands. Sort of like a controller to a video game. That’s all it is.

So for it to make decisions is a massive step. But who knows! Maybe some day!

I guess I don’t see any inherent difference between neuro or any other surgical specialty. In fact if machines were gonna take over something, it would be procedures on very fixed structures like the spine or brain. In comparison to bowel, let’s say. Could a robot which knows exactly the coordinates in your brain to remove a tumor because it can read the CT scan do a better job than a human can? Maybe I don’t know,

Could a computer read an MRI and more accurately place screws into the spine? I don’t know.

What’ll happen probably is a surgeon will virtually always be there, and a computer will assist on certain components, I would guess.

I’m a surgeon.

Surgical specialities aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s too complex and nuanced. There are certain subspecialties that could Have issues in the future, like bariatrics. I expect medication to eventually take that over. Or maybe specialities that are only cancer, medications may ultimately be able to treat all cancer but we are really far from that. Cardiac surgery is moving more and more to minimally invasive cardiology interventions.

Of course it’s difficult to predict the future of medicine.

I say surgical over medical because if AI is gonna take over something first, it’ll be medical decision making. Taking over physical actions of a surgeon is much more difficult. Before y’all come at me, I’m not saying it’s more difficult to be a surgeon, I’m saying the computer has to take on the ability to visualize (we often do stuff blindly just by feel) and make precise movements that are required in surgery which are not in the more decision making medical specialities.

There is no concern of mine at all of mid-levels creeping into taking over surgical specialities. It’s far too difficult. Our current problem is that surgeons aren’t being adequately trained even after 5 years of residency

Cool. But 150lbs short of world record so eh. /s

Pallet and a tractor to lift onto truck. There’s clips of them doing it