>KUALA LUMPUR: In the 1966 science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, a submarine with a group of doctors was miniaturised and injected into the bloodstream of an important scientist to remove a blood clot from the brain.
Some 40 years later, this 'fantasy' might become a reality. Given the rapid development in therapeutic endoscopy, a tiny robot injected into the body to identify the cause of a health problem and fix it from within has entered the realms of the possible.
South Carolina Medical University digestive disease centre director Professor Dr Peter Cotton said: "If we look at trends in medical industry, we see that more and more surgeries are being done with an endoscope.
"The instruments have become a lot more advanced over the years and there's no doubt that we could have 'intelligent', computerised instruments in the future," he said at "Endoscopy 2008", the annual International Live Therapeutic Endoscopy Workshop at Universiti Malaya on Saturday.
MALAYSIA: Endoscopy is the process in which a flexible fibre-optic tube with a light and tiny camera is inserted through the mouth or rectum so the organs can be inspected from within.
The instrument available now can provide an image for visual inspection and photography, and take a tissue sample.
The course director for the workshop, Prof Datuk Dr Goh Khean Lee, said more than 6,000 procedures were performed at the University Malaya Medical Centre endoscopy unit every year.
Present were UM deputy vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin and dean of the Faculty of Medicine Prof Dr Ikram Shah.
