THE DA VINCI TOUCH

Cork University Maternity Hospital is the only hospital in Europe that performs both cancer and non-cancer procedures using advanced robotics, writes Dan Buckley

WHEN it comes to making decisions, there is nothing to match human ingenuity — but try slicing skin, navigating a path through vital organs or stitching a wound and you can’t beat the precision of mechanics.

So, anything a doctor can do, a robot can do better, right? Not quite. Brains still trump brawn, but a growing number of medics are handing over the blood and guts side of their work to robots controlled from computer consoles.