Reach out and cut someone

NASA

Timothy Broderick, MD, performs a laparoscopic gallbladder surgery on a simulated patient.

You take an unmanned U.S. military drone, a "patient" in a desolate California valley and a doctor in Seattle, WA., and voila -- you've got telesurgery, according to this release from the University of Cinncinati.

A doctor will operate remotely on a simulated patient using robotic tools that are linked to equipment at the other end. All the communications will be handled through the drone, instead of over a high-speed Internet connection, something that isn't available in remote areas (the deserts of Iraq, say?).

Says Timothy Broderick, the lead surgeon:

“Reliable, high-speed communication signals are critical for telesurgery to work in day-to-day patient care. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate the communications lag to enable the surgeon to safely operate on a remote patient in real time.”

After the surgeons test the equipment from a few miles away, they will try it hundreds of miles apart between Simi Valley, CA., and Seattle.