The Heartlander!

Developed by those clever nerds down at CarNAYgie Mellon University Robotics Institute (Head Rotor being one such clever nerd, go Tartans), The Heartlander is a very tiny, disposable robot that provides access for minimally invasive cardiac therapy.

This little woochie-coochie critter caterpillars across live, beating heart tissue, and gives access to surgeons to repair people’s dicky tickers. The fact that the mechanism is dispoable cuts down on infection, and the mass production aspect cuts therapy costs dramatically.

PLUS the patient gets a cute little toy to run up and down their hospital room window when they are done!*

Photos and video are here.

*not really, but I wish they would.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 11:57 am and is filed under Bill Joy Is Probably Wrong, Medical Robots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.