Lasers have come a long way since the old joke that a laser was a solution searching for a problem. Today lasers pervade all aspects of our lives. There are laser light shows at discos, lasers used medically to preserve vision, lasers used to separate cells to detect potential birth defects, lasers used to weld floor-pans for automobiles and laser drilled cigarette filters. There are military applications from laser guided bombs to proposed earth-based lasers with synchronous mirrors on satellites that bring destruction at the speed of light anywhere in the world. Most of us see only the very surface of these diverse applications. Today I will quickly review what a laser is and how its unique properties make it applicable in the field of medicine. I will then show you some of the many different ways in which lasers are presently used, describe to you the major markets and companies presently engaged in the manufacture of medical lasers, and, importantly, share with you some thoughts about the future of lasers in medicine.

Date Published: 28 December 1982
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 0357, Lasers in Medicine and Surgery, (28 December 1982);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0357:
Lasers in Medicine and Surgery
Leon Goldman M.D., Editor(s)