Merdin-Uygur Ezgi, Ozturkcan Selcen, Özbilgin Mustafa F, Yılmaz Faruk, İnce Özgür
Brunel Business School, Brunel University of London, Uxbridge, UK.
School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 2;15(1):23642. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-08437-w.
Human-robot collaboration is transforming healthcare, particularly in surgical environments. Robotic surgery systems, embodied by advanced AI, are pivotal in augmenting human expertise across specialties such as gynecology and laparoscopic surgery. However, critical gaps remain in understanding how knowledge, agency, and ownership shape these collaborations. We address these gaps through semi-structured interviews with eleven healthcare professionals from diverse surgical roles. Our findings reveal that while robotic systems enhance precision and efficiency, they also generate tensions related to professional autonomy, control, and responsibility. Participants expressed ambivalent views, simultaneously demonstrating trust in the technology and strategic disengagement to preserve human authority. Concepts such as avatarization, the perception of robots as extensions of the self, and strategic ignorance emerged as key mechanisms through which professionals manage this evolving relationship. These dynamics point to the need for rethinking human-robot roles as fluid and co-constructed rather than fixed or hierarchical. We also emphasize the possible use of robotic systems to promote inclusivity and accessibility in healthcare while identifying structural barriers such as high costs, dependence on proprietary technology, and uneven organizational readiness. Our research enhances theoretical frameworks on human-robot interaction, providing practical and conceptual insights for the creation of equitable, sustainable, and context-sensitive robotic healthcare systems.
人机协作正在改变医疗保健领域，尤其是在手术环境中。以先进人工智能为代表的机器人手术系统，对于增强妇科和腹腔镜手术等各个专业领域的人类专业技能至关重要。然而，在理解知识、能动性和所有权如何塑造这些协作方面，仍存在关键差距。我们通过对来自不同手术岗位的11名医疗保健专业人员进行半结构化访谈来解决这些差距。我们的研究结果表明，虽然机器人系统提高了精准度和效率，但它们也引发了与职业自主性、控制权和责任相关的紧张关系。参与者表达了矛盾的观点，既对技术表示信任，又进行策略性脱离以维护人类权威。如化身化、将机器人视为自我延伸的认知以及策略性忽视等概念，成为专业人员管理这种不断演变的关系的关键机制。这些动态变化表明，需要将人机角色重新思考为灵活且共同构建的，而非固定或等级分明的。我们还强调了利用机器人系统促进医疗保健领域的包容性和可及性的可能性，同时指出了诸如高成本、对专有技术的依赖以及组织准备程度不均衡等结构性障碍。我们的研究完善了关于人机交互的理论框架，为创建公平、可持续且因地制宜的机器人医疗保健系统提供了实践和概念层面的见解。
