Medical Robotics and The Future of Surgery: Interview with Tracy Accardi, VP of R & D for Medtronic Surgical Robotics
Medtronic has been a key player in the minimally invasive surgery space for the last few decades, and has made great strides more recently in robotic surgery with last year’s acquisition of Digital Surgery. As a quick reference point: despite the many benefits of robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), only 3% of surgeries around the world are done with the help of robots. Medtronic is aiming to shatter the barriers currently thwarting the adoption of this important technology.
We were able to connect with Tracy Accardi, VP of R&D at Medtronic to catch a sneak peek of what the industry can expect over the next six months&...
Source: Medgadget - March 16, 2021 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Alice Ferng Tags: Cardiac Surgery Exclusive Neurosurgery Orthopedic Surgery Plastic Surgery Thoracic Surgery Urology Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
Alternate Realities Help Medical Education And Training During COVID-19
With the need to limit physical contact amidst the pandemic, the whole world turned to virtual solutions to reprise their daily activities. Zoom and Slack became the new workplace; and even medical consultations were increasingly conducted online.
However, by turning indoors, aspiring healthcare professionals were negatively impacted since hands-on practices and training were limited, if not impossible. In Scotland, dental students had to repeat a whole year due to insufficient clinical exposure. In particular, they could not practise aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) enough. The latter were limited due to their pote...
Source: The Medical Futurist - March 9, 2021 Category: Information Technology Authors: Pranavsingh Dhunnoo Tags: Covid-19 Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Augmented Reality Biotechnology E-Patients Future of Medicine Future of Pharma Healthcare Design Medical Education Virtual Reality Surgery VitraMed DentSim Simulator orthopedics stud Source Type: blogs
Endoscopic Surgery Using Steerable Lasers
Applying an energy source, such as a laser, to cut through or cauterize tissue is already widely used in external surgeries, such as laser eye surgery, but using this technology safely and accurately during minimally invasive internal procedures is difficult. Current endoscopic technology does not permit lasers to be steered and manipulated with sufficient precision.
Now researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a new technique to accurately steer a laser beam at the end of an endoscope for minimally invasive laser surgery. The approach relies on three small mirrors that move within a tiny cylinder to...
Source: Medgadget - January 18, 2021 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiac Surgery GI Ob/Gyn Thoracic Surgery Urology harvard wyssinstitute Source Type: blogs
Portable Surgical Robot for Minimally Invasive Procedures: Interview with John Murphy, CEO of Virtual Incision
Virtual Incision, a company based in Lincoln, Nebraska, has developed the miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant (MIRA) platform to perform minimally invasive abdominal surgeries, such as colon resections. Conceived as a small and accessible surgical robotic support device, the miniaturized system is considerably less expensive than current robotic surgical platforms.
MIRA is small enough to be easily transported and typically requires fewer incisions than larger and more complex surgical robots. The system can be inserted through a single midline umbilical incision in the abdomen. Strikingly, the device does not need s...
Source: Medgadget - November 2, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Neurosurgery Orthopedic Surgery Plastic Surgery Thoracic Surgery Urology Vascular Surgery intuitive surgical minimally invasive surgery virtual incision Source Type: blogs
A Laparoscopy Assistance Platform to Optimize Minimally Invasive Surgery: Interview with Anne Osdoit, CEO of MastOR
Minimally invasive surgery has played a huge role in improving patient outcomes, and reducing morbidity and recovery times compared with traditional surgical techniques. However, it can be a little tricky for surgeons to operate through tiny incisions and use complicated equipment, meaning that there is often a significant learning curve and training period involved.
Robotics is well suited to aiding surgeons in minimally invasive surgery and surgical robots have made an impact on the field. However, they come with a variety of limitations including their expense, size, and need for additional training, specific consuma...
Source: Medgadget - July 30, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive GI Ob/Gyn Orthopedic Surgery Thoracic Surgery Urology Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
Switching to Outpatient Surgery for Everyone ’s Benefit
By AMY KRAMBECK, MD
The
trend toward less invasive procedures, shifting from inpatient to outpatient, has
changed the face of surgery. Industry-changing leaps in technology and surgical
techniques have allowed us to achieve our treatment goals with smaller
incisions, laparoscopy and other “closed” procedures, less bleeding, less pain,
and lower complication rates. As a result, patients who used to require days of
recovery in the hospital for many common surgeries can now recuperate in their
own homes.
Outpatient
procedures grew from about 50% to 67% of hospitals’
total surgeries between 1994 and 2016,1,2 and o...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 19, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Physicians Amy Krambeck benign prostatic hyperplasia outpatient surgery Source Type: blogs
Robotic System for Deep Endovascular Instrument Guidance
Researchers at the Polytechnique Montréal Nanorobotics Laboratory in Canada have developed a new method to guide endovascular instruments into complex vascular structures that were hitherto inaccessible to endovascular surgeons. The technique involves moving the patient and the endovascular instrument using a robotic platform within a magnetic field.
Endovascular surgery has enabled minimally invasive approaches for a huge array of surgical interventions. However, the technique is not without its challenges, and advancing a thin catheter through long and tortuous vasculature can be difficult, with the device potential...
Source: Medgadget - December 5, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiac Surgery Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
Surgery for appendicitis? Antibiotics alone may be enough
I remember when my best friend in fifth grade couldn’t make our much-anticipated end-of-the-school-year camping trip because he had just undergone surgery for appendicitis. Now I prevent kids from participating in their school activities for four to six weeks after I remove their appendix. But what is the appendix, why do we have an organ that causes so many problems, and do you need surgery for appendicitis?
Role of the appendix is unclear
The appendix is a fingerlike tube, about three to four inches long, that comes off of the first portion of the colon. It is normally located in the lower right abdomen, just after the...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 9, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christopher J. Burns, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Surgery Source Type: blogs
Last Month in Oncology with Dr. Bishal Gyawali: November 2018
By BISHAL GYAWALI MD
Keynote speech
There was a very sobering piece in NEJM by the FDA last month in which the authors try to explore what went wrong with the Keynote-183, Keynote-185 and checkmate 602 trials testing PD-1 inhibitors combinations with pomalidomide or lenalidomide and dexamethasone in multiple myeloma. Interim analysis of Keynote 183 and 185 revealed detrimental effects on overall survival (OS) with hazard ratios of 1.61 and 2.06, not explained by differences in toxicities alone. The checkmate 602 trial was also halted in light of these findings and also showed higher mortality in the nivolumab combina...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 17, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Pharmaceuticals Physicians Bishal Gyawali Cancer drugs cancer immunotherapy Clinical Trials FDA Oncology PD-1 inhibitors Source Type: blogs
Philips and Augusta University Partner to Improve Patient Care: Interview with Philips CMO
A few months ago, we heard about how Philips and Augusta University Health are working together in a long-term partnership for the co-development of clinical solutions such as a hybrid operating room. To learn more about the partnership as well as the unique, hybrid operating room into which multiple technologies and procedures have been combined, Medgadget heard from Dr. Joe Frassica, Philips’ CMO and Head of Research for the Americas.
Michael Batista, Medgadget: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us about the recent news regarding Philips’ partnership with Augusta University Health. To begi...
Source: Medgadget - November 7, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Michael Batista Tags: Exclusive Medicine Public Health Surgery Source Type: blogs
Questioning Your Doctor is Ok
I received a good question(s) from a reader:
In your “Changing the culture” posting there is the comment: “Patients seeking medical treatment should not assume a prescribed therapy is beneficial just because a doctor says it is.”… How then does a patient evaluate a proposed treatment in a way that they aren’t thwarting a doctor from performing what may be a needed course of treatment? … Other writing I’ve seen describes doctors being too accommodative to patients reluctance at a treatment. A bad feedback loop if there was one.
Patients should definitely not assume a tr...
Source: Dr John M - November 5, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
Grander Lessons from a Failure of Robotic Surgery
This week on my podcast, I deviated briefly from cardiology to discuss a shocking and sad study highlighting the vital nature of doing randomized controlled trials in the practice of medicine.
The reason I mentioned a trial comparing 2 types of hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) in women with early stage cervical cancer was not to opine on matters of cancer, but because the tragic story shows the harm doctors can do if we incorporate therapies without proper testing.
The New England Journal of Medicine published a trial in which women with early cervical cancer were randomized to two types of hysterectomy:
One was the...
Source: Dr John M - November 4, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
Predictive Health Company Potrero Medical Closes $26.6 Million in Oversubscribed Series C Financing
GT Healthcare and Sonder Capital Led the Round
SAN FRANCISCO — July 9, 2018 — Potrero Medical, Inc., a predictive health company focused on using smart sensors and analytics for early detection of critical illnesses, announced today the closing of a $26.6 million Series C financing. The financing was led by China-focused healthcare investment firm GT Healthcare Capital Partners and Silicon Valley-based Sonder Capital. The funding will support further commercialization efforts of the company’s flagship product, the Accuryn® Monitoring System.
Alan Au, Founder and Managing Partner of GT Healthcare, commented: “We ...
Source: Medgadget - July 9, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Potrero Medical Tags: Sponsored Content Source Type: blogs
Laparoscopy and IVF - before, after or never ?
Before referring a patient for IVF to an IVF clinic, many gynecologists will insist on doing a laparoscopy . They justify this using all kinds of pretexts. saying" We will get a chance to check your pelvis, so we can clip your tubes, if needed, or burn any endometriosis." Their justification is that doing this will improve the patient's chance of getting pregnant with IVF. This is false, but poor patients don't know any better. They feel that if they are going to spend so much money on IVF, they might as well spend a little bit more on the laparoscopy, if this will improve their IVF success rate !Removing small fibroids an...
Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - April 5, 2018 Category: Reproduction Medicine Tags: diagnostic laparoscopy Endoscopy ivf operative laparoscopy Source Type: blogs
Why the cell-free fetal DNA test is a game-changer
As a practicing OB/GYN, I feel lucky to be working in a field so full of promise and with space for advancement of medical technology. Although prospects of improved fetal imaging, cervical cancer prevention, and techniques of minimally invasive surgery are game-changing, new discoveries in the genetics arena of our field strike me as simply incredible.
Prenatal genetic testing has only been reasonably available to mothers since about 1970, and at that time was limited to invasive testing using amniocentesis, which carried significant risks. Although “amnio” still has a place in obstetrics, the availability of ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 2, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/danielle-jones" rel="tag" > Danielle Jones, MD < /a > Tags: Conditions OB/GYN Source Type: blogs
