Data Modeling
Mathematical and Computational Data Modeling
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Volume 4 Number 1 2023
REVIEWS (Open Access)
Can Telesurgery Bridge Bangladesh's Urban-Rural Healthcare Divide? A Narrative Review of Feasibility, Cybersecurity, and Cost Barriers
Sumit Kumar Pramanik 1, Khondaker A. Mamun 1*
Data Modeling 4 (1) 1-11 https://doi.org/10.25163/data.4110809
Submitted: 20 June 2023 Revised: 10 August 2023 Accepted: 16 August 2023 Published: 18 August 2023
Abstract
Background: Telesurgery — robotic surgery performed across a physical distance — has moved from experimental demonstration to occasional clinical reality over the past two decades, yet its uptake in low- and middle-income countries remains negligible. Whether Bangladesh, a country with a pronounced urban-rural disparity in specialist surgical access, could realistically adopt the technology is not yet well understood, and this review sets out to ask that question directly rather than assume an answer.
Methods: Rather than a formal systematic review, we conducted a structured narrative synthesis of twelve studies published mostly between 2018 and 2023, deliberately retaining one earlier 2015 study for its foundational relevance to telesurgical cybersecurity. Literature was identified through Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, and ScienceDirect, supplemented by reference-list snowballing, and extracted thematically across feasibility, network architecture, cybersecurity, and clinical adoption.
Results: The core robotics and 5G-enabled low-latency communication now appear technically sound — even validated in cross-border cardiac surgery — but cybersecurity vulnerabilities, unresolved cross-jurisdictional regulation, and acquisition costs reaching several million dollars remain serious, largely unresolved obstacles. Urology, gynaecology, and oncosurgery currently dominate global robotic caseloads, suggesting plausible starting points for a Bangladeshi pilot.
Conclusion: Closing the gap appears to depend less on robotic capability itself, which is arguably ready, and more on telecommunications investment, shared or subsidized infrastructure models, and a regulatory framework purpose-built for cross-border operative liability. Whether Bangladesh seizes this window will likely hinge on deliberate policy choices rather than technological readiness alone.
Keywords: Telesurgery; Robotic Surgery; Tactile Internet; Bangladesh; Healthcare Access
References
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