Would you be willing to go under a scalpel held by a robot?

Do not dismiss the idea as being bizarre. Doctors in the United Kingdom have begun to use a robotic arm to carry out intricate heart surgery.

Surgeries that require a high degree of skill could be farmed out to specialist robots that are maneuvered by a joystick. This would make the procedure quicker and more accurate.

The process is yet to be fully automated. However, that does not seem to be too distant a possibility. Given the limited number of experts and the large number of patients, human doctors might soon have competition from their robotic counterparts.