Sina Bari, Director of Medical AI at iMerit, speaks to MedTech Insight about Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS), the next step in the evolution of surgery as it allows surgeons to perform more complex operations in even smaller spaces than MIS.
Here are 5 key takeaways from the article:
- Operating in the pelvis for urologic and gynecologic procedures has become one of the most compelling reasons to use robots because of demonstrable improvements in outcomes.
- One of the most exciting areas using RAS is endoscopy and tools such as the Auris Monarch, a platform that is revolutionizing bronchoscopy by doubling the ability of surgeons to reach cancer nodules in the lung periphery.
- Components of surgery rather than the entire procedure will be fully autonomous before robots take over all aspects of an operation. For example, thyroid surgery requires a long tunnel from an incision hidden in the armpit to the neck area. This tunneling approach could be done completely by robots in the near future.
- Sowing millimeter-sized blood vessels end-to-end under a microscope during reconstructive surgery, which is the most complex portion of that surgery, is another area fully autonomous robots could take over.
- Today’s robots, though highly skilled, require a human behind the controls, the same way the most advanced airplanes require a pilot behind the wheel. But computer vision technology that essentially provides a robot with eyes could completely transform RAS capability.
