Robotic Assisted Surgery: A Theoretical Approach to Perceived Workload and Non-verbal and Verbal Communication

Abstract

Traditional medical surgery has evolved in the past decade with advances toward robot assisted surgeries (RAS) taking over the healthcare industry. Regular hospital formalities experienced by surgeons and team members such as communication methods are now challenged to progress alongside RAS. Emerging trends such as diminishing hospital staffing and greater procedural outputs have required new demands. Current literature insufficiently addresses how team workload is distributed and communicated between a surgeon performing the surgical task with robotic aid while delegating work tasks to the assisting surgical team. This paper investigates how robotically assisted surgical team’s perception of workload is moderated by using more concise verbal and nonverbal communication methods employed by the operating surgeon and operating room team. As the development of robotic surgical systems become more widespread, it is essential to consider the interdependencies between human to robot to human medical interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and perceived workload.