Paper short abstract:

This paper explores a series of tensions and ambiguities in the sociotechnical construction of haptics for the da Vinci Surgical System and considers their relationship to surgical experience and expertise.

Paper long abstract:

Robotic surgery constitutes an increasingly large share of surgeries performed globally every year. The increase in robotic surgeries has shifted the way robotic surgeons train and operate by reorienting the work of their hands and eyes. Positioned at the control console of a robot, away from the patient, surgeons glide grips with their fingers and press pedals with their feet while immersing themselves in the high-definition 3D space of a viewing hood.

This paper uses the da Vinci surgical system as a case study to explore what it means for human surgical touch to become medically mediated robotic touch. An analysis of empirical data from documents and interviews with engineers who designed the da Vinci reveals haptic ambiguities that both obscure touch and bring it to the surface. The evidence reveals political and economic decisions driving development of visual systems rather than touch systems and considers the implications of those decisions on surgical expertise. The analysis also considers how treating touch from a functionalist and instrumentalist perspective meant to make touch usable for a surgical robot ultimately reduces human touch to forces that render the surgeon’s touch suspect, prone to error, in need of assistance, and desirable in the act of performing surgery, but not necessarily essential.