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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThe Quest to Build the First Robotic Vagina (HAIL SCIENCE!!!)
he female body is a complicated thingjust ask your doctor. Specifically, womens reproductive systems exhibit a wide array of anatomical variation, and the bulk of our lady parts are tucked inside and invisible to the eye. This presents doctors-in-training with a daunting challenge: how to master the dreaded gynecological exam.
Although an influential health panel recently suggested healthy women may not need a full pelvic exam every single year, many doctors still see the annual exam as a critical opportunity to look for cancers, cysts, fibroids and more. Now, researchers at Imperial College London are creating a robotic female pelvis which would allow medical students to learn to see the female body by feel, so theyll be more prepared when they encounter a live human being with her feet in stirrups.
If these researchers succeed, their funny-looking silicone recreation of the lower female torso could help new doctors get betterfasterat conducting the most intimate exam most women regularly face. It could also ensure that these doctors first exams are more comfortable for the women on the receiving end. The teams project involves 3D imaging as well as haptic technology to simulate the sense of toucha suitably complex project to simulate a complex facet of the human anatomy.
But even with cutting-edge techniques, it's a tough feat. The team has been working on the project for about five years, and theyre finding that theres still a lot to learn about the female body. Its fascinating, really, says Fernando Bello, a professor in surgical computing and simulation science who leads the team. Weve been working on this for a number of years now, and in many ways, we feel as if were kind of just beginning.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/your-vagina-biological-miracle-and-researchers-are-trying-recreate-it-180960304/#g5MtKG1o2TqlfQ5z.99
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Kaleva
(36,321 posts)clarice
(5,504 posts)demmiblue
(36,873 posts)This is a real scientific advancement in women's health care that will affect numerous lives.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I can't ever make any of you loungies laugh...
demmiblue
(36,873 posts)It is a really good article that is more appropriate for GD.
The Lounge is for lighthearted banter, not for serious and informing articles like this.
Posting it here will only cause the Bevis and Butthead types to expose themselves and make light of women's healthcare issues.
rug
(82,333 posts)GOLGO 13
(1,681 posts)Asking for a friend...
jmowreader
(50,561 posts)Once you read the article you realize they're building a training aid for new physicians, but the headline makes it sound like they're creating a high-tech sex toy.
sakabatou
(42,165 posts)3catwoman3
(24,024 posts)...someone will sneak into the learning lab after hour to "test drive" this device?
True Dough
(17,313 posts)DFW
(54,426 posts)I still prefer the old-style organic kind. But maybe that's just the male chauvinist in me.