Robots in Surgery: Empirical Findings Through Technification of Medical Work

The increasing integration of technology into work is not only evident in industry and the service sector, but also in medicine. From X-ray machines as well as computer and magnetic resonance imaging to robotic and artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems to support medical activities, numerous technical artefacts are now integrated into everyday clinical practice. Although new technologies offer new opportunities, they also implicate risks and trigger far-reaching and sometimes latent processes of change in working practices. To understand these transformation dynamics, it is necessary to identify and analyse the changes that are taking place. Using the example of the ‘da Vinci’ surgical system for robot-assisted surgery (RAC), it is shown that the introduction of the robot brings with it a significant dynamic of change at the micro level of actions in the operating theatre in social, spatial, temporal and material terms. This applies in particular to activities in which the use of AI tools is being prepared and tried.