12/07/2025
A surgical robot developed by Johns Hopkins University, called the Surgical Robot Transformer-Hierarchy (SRT-H), has successfully removed a gallbladder from a realistic human-like model with 100% accuracy—without human help.
Instead of being programmed step by step, the robot learned like a junior doctor: by watching real surgeries. It was trained using videos of gallbladder removals on pig cadavers, with each action labeled and explained through captions and voice commands. This helped it understand not just what to do, but why.
SRT-H completed a complex 17-step gallbladder removal procedure multiple times on lifelike models, adjusting in real time to challenges like tissue color changes or varying starting positions. In every test, it performed with expert-level precision.
The robot uses advanced AI, like the tech behind ChatGPT, to follow voice commands and adapt during surgery if things change. It took longer than human doctors, but handled everything on its own.
The next step: testing SRT-H on other types of surgery. While it's not yet approved for operating on live humans, the research team expects that could happen within the next decade.
