Title: Medical Photonics, Photo-biomodulation and the Future Disruptive Revolution by Lasers in Medicine

Biography:

Richard Satava is a professor of Surgery Yale University, Professor of Surgery Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Program Manager Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Senior Science Advisor US Army Medical Research Command. TRAINING: Johns Hopkins University, Hahnemann University Medical School, Internship Cleveland Clinic, Surgical Residency Mayo Clinic with Master of Surgical Research. Awards: Smithsonian Laureate in Healthcare and Department of Defense Legion of Merit. During 23 years of Military Surgery: Flight Surgeon, Army astronaut candidate, MASH surgeon - Grenada Invasion, Hospital Commander - Desert Storm, all the while continuing clinical surgical practice.

Abstract

Non-healthcare industries have used a wide spectrum of energy-based systems for many different purposes, from microchip manufacturing to artist creations, but few have been exploited by surgeons. Although many technologies are large and sophisticated image-guided systems that provide precise targeting at the molecular and atomic level, new emerging technologies are small, hand-held portable systems. Thus, many time-honored surgical procedures will be performed as outpatient or office procedures, providing new opportunities for photonics in the clinical realm. A more disruptive change of the next revolution is directed energy for diagnosis and therapy (DEDAT), taking surgery to the final step – non-invasive surgery. Combining experience in lasers, photo-biomodulation, image guided surgery and robotic surgery, there are new energy-based technologies which provide the control and precision of photonic energy that enable operating (non-invasively) at the cellular and molecular level. The evidence that has been building from the multiple disciplinary fields of photonics, computer assisted surgery, genetic engineering and molecular biology communities (Radiology, Surgery, Plasma Medicine, Molecular Biology, the Human Genome) will be presented, including technologies beyond photonics such as high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), terahertz imaging and therapeutics – to name a few. Though still in its infancy, DEDAT is but the tip of the iceberg that heralds the transition to non-invasive surgery. Such systems are based upon the premise that directed energy can bring precision, speed and reliability - especially as surgery ‘descends’ into operating at the cellular and molecular level. Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman was right – there is “plenty of room at the bottom”.