The Clinical Impact of New Technologies in Diagnosis and Disease Management

Dear Colleagues,

Artificial intelligence and innovations in digital technology have begun to transform the practice of surgery, as they have helped surgeons make more personalized patient care decisions. Machine learning models have the potential to learn complex relationships between a great number of clinical variables, which helps us better predict the surgical outcomes of patients, which is important in deciding which patients would be candidates for surgery and in predicting postoperative risk of complications.

Laparoscopic surgery is a transitional technology that has conquered the present and will dominate the future. Robotic surgery is the latest frontier in surgery. Most surgeries can be performed in a minimally invasive video-assisted manner, and the benefits of this approach are incontestable: decreased surgical aggression, shorter operating time, more and rapid achievement of normal bowel function, postoperative pain, decreased morbidity (surgical site infection), mortality, reduced duration of postoperative hospitalization and its costs, short postoperative socio-professional reintegration, and excellent aesthetic results. Moreover, minimally invasive video-assisted procedures are feasible and safe for selected cases, even in emergency surgery. Robotic devices were developed to overcome the disadvantages of conventional laparoscopic surgery. Moreover, the robotic system provides excellent ergonomics, tremor stabilization, enhanced ambidextrous capability, motion scaling, and instruments capable of moving with multiple degrees of freedom. Robotic surgery has its drawbacks of diminished haptic feedback, increased operative times, and increased procedural cost.

Other impacts of new technologies are represented by the use of negative pressure therapy in the treatment of acute and chronic surgical wounds, which will allow: evaluation of the time required for healing after applying the method; assessment of the extent of the surgical procedure and the consequences for the patient from a functional point of view; tracking the effectiveness of negative pressure therapy in the treatment of acute and chronic surgical wounds; and estimating the benefits of negative pressure therapy in various applications in surgical practice and in the context of limiting the risk of infection associated with medical care.

We invite you and your colleagues to submit your articles concerning this topic. Original research articles, reviews, or case reports focusing on the minimally invasive video-assisted approach, robotics, innovative procedures, individualized therapy, surgical training, artificial intelligence, genomics, training, translational research, machine learning, computer vision, wearable devices, or other impacts of new technologies are welcome.

Dr. Alin Mihai Vasilescu
Dr. Bogdan-Mihnea Ciuntu
Guest Editors

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