Monopoly Tour and Video Games

Very slow start for me this morning.  Didn't bother to get out of bed til well after 0900.  Then took myself off for a wander to see if I could continue my own little Monopoly Tour.  I did Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Strand and Oxford Street. Yesterday I was in Mayfair and came across Park Lane, Pall Mall and Bond Street.

While out on my tour I visited the M&M's store, of course I found the Lego store across from that.  I also visited Fortnum & Mason to take a peek at the incredible selection of cakes, tea and chocolates, I did not purchase any though. It was a looking only experience, I was scared if I started I might not stop.

Continued my hunt for the perfect car,

found it at Lego

After this I headed to Chinatown for lunch.  Once again started a trend at the place I ate. Walked in and it was quiet but the time I left, it was busy.  I decided after lunch that I would head back to the hotel for a bit as the weather was starting to pick up a bit and starting to try and rain.  Came back and put my feet up for a bit then came down and had a coffee at the coffee shop so I could watch the weather outside and decide if I would head out again or wait for Carrie.

It was Day 2 for the conference for me (Carrie).  Today was a hands on day put on for the nurses (and nurse assistants) we had sessions with Medtronic Hugo RAS where we got to put on VR headsets and practice draping, docking, setting up the arm carts and go through emergency drills all virtually.  It was very cool and I good option for people to train on the system if unable to practice on an actual robot.  We then went downstairs to play with the actual robot however the bloody doctors were there and we couldn't get near the equipment.  Not a huge deal for me as we have this robot at work but it was unfortunate for other nurses not familiar with this platform.

We then had a session with MicroPort who is basically the Chinese version of the Da Vinci robot system (they reversed engineered to copy the Da Vinci) but their presentation was about TeleSurgery and what they have been able to achieve worldwide so far with having surgeons perform robotic surgery from Florida on a patient in Angola.  Amazing stuff!  They did have a live surgery today with a surgeon performing the surgery here in London on a patient in Belgium.  I guess it has its place but not something to be performed all the time.

Then after lunch we had a session with Intuitive Da Vinci - heard about their newest robots (and all wishing we could have them at our respective hospitals), we heard from a Robotic co-ordinator at Leeds St James Hospital and he spoke about his robotic team and the amazing work he and his team have managed to streamline in their department in coordination with Intuitive, hospital BDM, exec team, doctors, theatre team etc.  He definitely inspired me and sparked something in me to go back to work and implement/try some new things.

The NHS seem to be really supportive of robotic surgery here in the UK.  2024 there were 70K robotic procedures performed and aim to reach 500,000 by 2035.  The Health Minister is really driving it (having personally had robotic kidney operation).  He/NHS see the benefit of robotic surgery for patients in shorter hospital stays, minimally invasive and less risk of post-op. complications.  it was amazing to hear how many robots they have in some hospitals.  In Guys Hospital alone, there is 11 robots.

Day 3 (final day) of the conference tomorrow.  We have no nurse focused sessions so I think I'll wander through some live surgeries and wear my cool silent disco headset. Whoop! Whoop!