Safety Critical Problems in Medical Systems

Abstract

Advanced medical systems have many safety problems concerned with hardware, software and the human/computer interface. The paper discusses these as general issues and then goes on to illustrate them with particular reference to robotic systems in medicine, with which the author has direct experience. These robotic systems are discussed in some detail and illustrated with examples from robotic surgery and from rehabilitation robotics. As a result of safety issues that arose in this work, a series of suggestions are made in the hope of providing a start to a general consensus on what should be incorporated into an advanced medical safety system. Only when such a consensus is achieved can the most appropriate level of safety system be designed for a particular application.