Does robotic telesurgery have a future?

Although many have experimented with remote “telesurgery,” are the conditions right for commercial companies to start making an investment in a remote robotic surgical future? Although the idea of telesurgery — performing specialized procedures with robot-assisted surgical tools from a remote location — dates back to the very first research into medical robotics, the technology has yet to make a significant commercial impact. Robotic surgery is one of the hottest fields in medtech, as a raft of new entrants expand the possibilities for minimally invasive surgery. But thus far, commercialized systems are operated in a same-room cockpit or nearby control room. Is a remote solution viable? Opinions vary, but experts agree on one thing – the hurdles are daunting. Corindus Vascular Robotics (Waltham, Mass.) is one of the more optimistic players in the field. In January, the company announced a joint project with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for pre-clinical testing of its CorPath GRX platform in “telestenting” procedures. Doug Teany, R&D and operations SVP, told Medical Design & Outsourcing that Corindus is optimistic that the tests are a significant step toward a viable telesurgery technology. “For us, technically speaking, we’re very confident that this can be done,” Teany told us. “We’re so confident that it can be done that we’ve actually already done it in the office through a local area network connection — where we’ve gone fu...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Robotics Surgical Corindus Vascular Robotics Source Type: news