In an interview with Radio Sputnik, the expert commented on the future of surgery and potential breakthroughs in healing various diseases.
"Of course, surgery in oncology will be the number one approach like today. But I definitely think that in the near future there will be less and less surgical procedures," Pushkar told Sputnik.
According to the expert, robotics have been a tremendous breakthrough in the field of medicine to help a surgeon. The first procedure of this kind took place 15 years ago in the EU and the US and then came to medical centers in other countries.
"In the United States, for example, 85% of cancer procedures are performed by a robot. In our department, […] we perform 600 procedures a year and 80-85% robotically," Pushkar said.
In Pushkar's opinion, the training of future specialists for surgery should be balanced and include knowledge of both conventional and robotic surgery. In a couple of years, both types of surgeries are likely to be combined, the expert argued.
Pushkar also added that in the future some serious diseases might completely disappear and the number of surgical procedures might decrease, too. At the same time, he also mentioned that surgery will still remain under high demand in such fields as oncology, as cancer is unlikely be eliminated soon.
"There will be some diseases disappearing in the future, but unfortunately there will be some diseases that stay," the expert said. "That is what happening even with such diseases as Hepatitis C and AIDS. Although I don't think this will be the case in oncology yet."
