(from the application): This is a proposal seeking support for a workshop to discuss the emerging technology of digital image graphics, robotics, and computer informatics which have already made significant impacts on medicine and surgery in research, education and patient care. Relative merits and potential negative effects of these impacts must be carefully assessed, especially under the current pressure of health care reform and the drastically reduced rate of medical reimbursement in both the private and public sectors. Hence, it is time for us to review such emerging technological developments which have created varying degrees of enthusiasm, excitement, concerns, and skepticism. To properly assess the potential value of this technology in orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation medicine, a candid review of the problems, needs and possibilities of these new tools in different sub-specialties of our field is appropriate and necessary. In musculoskeletal joint systems, many treatment modalities depend on mechanical factors such as geometry, motion, forces, pressure, stresses, etc. Dynamic simulation using digital imaging graphic models with the capability to perform biomechanical analyses and visualize results through animation appears to be a powerful tool to our critical needs. On the other hand, the field of medicine, especially surgery, possesses the intangible elements combined with psychosocial and emotional aspects which can not be quantified in scientific terms. Unexpected complications and intra-operative variations demand that surgeons react promptly and meticulously. These subtle elements in surgery will be difficult to incorporate into computer algorithms and decision-making logic for robot control. Hence, if Medical Robots, Virtual Reality Models, Telemedicine/Telesurgery, Computer-Assisted Surgery and Preoperative Planning can play a role in the future of orthopaedic medicine, their proper scope and relevant areas of application must be carefully defined and scrutinized. The objective of this workshop is to learn about the current state-of-the-art development and potential applications of these emerging technologies in orthopaedics through careful assessment, rational prioritization and exploration. Such an exercise could also stimulate future research and job opportunities. Orthopaedics has set the standard of basic research and clinical dissemination of scientific knowledge in the past two decades. It is logical for us to meet the challenge again in directing this exciting technology for proper, effective, and justified utilization in patient care, for the training of health personnel, and for guiding biomedical research for the next century.
