Frederic Moll

Last updated

Dr. Frederic Moll (born 1952) is a physician, medical device developer and entrepreneur, specializing in the field of medical robotics.

Contents

Early life and education

Moll's mother and father were both pediatricians. [1] He was raised in Seattle where he attended Lakeside School [1] and was schoolmates with Microsoft cofounders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, graduating in 1969. Moll then attended the University of California at Berkeley where he earned a B.A. degree, before going to the University of Washington to earn his M.D. degree.

Career

During his surgical residency at Virginia Mason Medical Center in the early 1980s, Moll says he was “struck by the size of the incision and injury created just to get inside the body.” [1] He left his residency to develop the safety trocar, which helped make general laparoscopic surgery possible, and funded - and later sold - two medical equipment businesses in Silicon Valley: Endotherapeutics (acquired by United States Surgical) and Origin Medsystems (acquired by Eli Lilly). [1] [2] [3] He also obtained an M.S. degree in business management from Stanford University.

Following its acquisition by Eli Lilly, Origin MedSystem became an operating company within Guidant in 1992. Moll served as medical director of Guidant's surgical division until 1995. [3] During this time, he became certain that robotics could help to make routine surgery less invasive, and in 1995 left Guidant to found Intuitive Surgical with John Freund and Rob Younge. Since this time, Intuitive has worked on developing minimally-invasive, robotic assisted tools and platforms, including the da Vinci system for robotic-assisted surgical procedures. [4]

Moll left Intuitive Surgical in 2002 to become founder & CEO of Hansen Medical, which developed robotic systems for vascular and interventional electrophysiology procedures, and a robotically steered catheter sheath. [5] Hansen Medical received Frost & Sullivan's Product Innovation Award in 2008 for US Image-Guided and Robotic Assisted Surgery Devices. [6]

Moll was a board member of Mako Surgical until its sale in 2013. [1]

Moll co-founded surgical robotics company Auris Surgical Robots, now Auris Health, with Hari Sundram and J.P Velis in 2007. [7] Auris Health's Monarch system is a diagnostic tool that uses robotic-assisted endoscopy. Its application in the earlier and more accurate diagnosis of lung cancer was approved by the FDA in 2018. [8] [9] Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced its acquisition of Auris Health in February 2019; [7] Moll joined J&J as Chief Development Officer as part of the acquisition, and was involved in the acquisition of Verb Surgical from Alphabet Inc.'s Verily Life Sciences at the end of 2019. [10]

In 2016, Moll joined the board of RefleXion, a medical equipment company developing a biologically guided radiation therapy system for cancer treatment. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urology</span> Medical specialty

Urology, also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary system and the reproductive organs. Organs under the domain of urology include the kidneys, adrenal glands, ureters, urinary bladder, urethra, and the male reproductive organs.

Remote surgery is the ability for a doctor to perform surgery on a patient even though they are not physically in the same location. It is a form of telepresence. A robot surgical system generally consists of one or more arms, a master controller (console), and a sensory system giving feedback to the user. Remote surgery combines elements of robotics, telecommunications such as high-speed data connections and elements of management information systems. While the field of robotic surgery is fairly well established, most of these robots are controlled by surgeons at the location of the surgery. Remote surgery is remote work for surgeons, where the physical distance between the surgeon and the patient is less relevant. It promises to allow the expertise of specialized surgeons to be available to patients worldwide, without the need for patients to travel beyond their local hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Scientific</span> U.S.-based medical device company

Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC), headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts and incorporated in Delaware, is a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional medical specialties, including interventional radiology, interventional cardiology, peripheral interventions, neuromodulation, neurovascular intervention, electrophysiology, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, endoscopy, oncology, urology and gynecology. Boston Scientific is widely known for the development of the Taxus Stent, a drug-eluting stent which is used to open clogged arteries. With the full acquisition of Cameron Health in June 2012, the company also became notable for offering a minimally invasive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) which they call the EMBLEM subcutaneous implantable defibrillator (S-ICD).

Ethicon, Inc. is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. It was incorporated as a separate company under the Johnson & Johnson umbrella in 1949 to expand and diversify the Johnson & Johnson product line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robot-assisted surgery</span> Surgical procedure

Robot-assisted surgery or robotic surgery are any types of surgical procedures that are performed using robotic systems. Robotically assisted surgery was developed to try to overcome the limitations of pre-existing minimally-invasive surgical procedures and to enhance the capabilities of surgeons performing open surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intuitive Surgical</span> American biotechnology company

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. is an American biotechnology company that develops, manufactures, and markets robotic products designed to improve clinical outcomes of patients through minimally invasive surgery, most notably with the da Vinci Surgical System. The company is part of the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500. As of 31 December 2021, Intuitive Surgical had an installed base of 6,730 da Vinci Surgical Systems, including 4,139 in the U.S., 1,199 in Europe, 1,050 in Asia, and 342 in the rest of the world.

Urology Robotics, or URobotics, is a new interdisciplinary field for the application of robots in urology and for the development of such systems and novel technologies in this clinical discipline. Urology is among the medical fields with the highest rate of technology advances, which for several years has included the use medical robots.

da Vinci Surgical System Robotic surgical system

The da Vinci Surgical System is a robotic surgical system that uses a minimally invasive surgical approach. The system is manufactured by the company Intuitive Surgical. The system is used for prostatectomies, increasingly for cardiac valve repair and for renal and gynecologic surgical procedures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashutosh Tewari</span> American urologist, oncologist

Ashutosh K. Tewari is the chairman of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is a board certified American urologist, oncologist, and principal investigator. Before moving to the Icahn School of Medicine in 2013, he was the founding director of both the Center for Prostate Cancer at Weill Cornell Medical College and the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Tewari was the Ronald P. Lynch endowed Chair of Urologic Oncology and the hospital's Director of Robotic Prostatectomy, treating patients with prostate, urinary bladder and other urological cancers. He is the current President of the Society for Urologic Robotic Surgeons (SURS) and the Committee Chair of the Prostate Program. Dr. Tewari is a world leading urological surgeon, and has performed over 10,000 robotically assisted procedures using the da Vinci Surgical System. Academically, he is recognized as a world-renowned expert on urologic oncology with over 250 peer reviewed published papers to his credit; he is on such lists as America's Top Doctors, New York Magazine's Best Doctors, and Who's Who in the World. In 2012, he was given the American Urological Association Gold Cystoscope Award for "outstanding contributions to the field of urologic oncology, most notably the treatment of prostate cancer and the development of novel techniques to improve the outcomes of robotic prostatectomy."

The Sensei X robotic catheter is a medical robot designed to enhance a physician’s ability to perform complex operations using a small flexible tube called a catheter. As open surgical procedures that require large incisions have given way to minimally invasive surgeries in which the surgeon gains access to the target organs through small incisions using specialized surgical tools. One important tool used in many of these procedures is a catheter used to deliver many of things a surgeon needs to do his work, to impact target tissue and deliver a variety of medicines or disinfecting agents to treat disease or infection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hansen Medical</span>

Hansen Medical, Inc, headquartered in Mountain View, California, designs and manufactures medical robotics for positioning and control of catheter-based technologies that was founded in 2002 by Frederic Moll, M.D. to develop tools that manipulate catheters by combining robotic technology and computerized movement.

The ZEUS Robotic Surgical System (ZRSS) was a medical robot designed to assist in surgery, originally produced by the American robotics company Computer Motion. Its predecessor, AESOP, was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994 to assist surgeons in minimally invasive surgery. The ZRSS itself was cleared by the FDA seven years later, in 2001. ZEUS had three robotic arms, which were remotely controlled by the surgeon. The first arm, AESOP, was a voice-activated endoscope, allowing the surgeon to see inside the patient's body. The other two robotic arms mimicked the surgeon's movements to make precise incisions and extractions. ZEUS was discontinued in 2003, following the merger of Computer Motion with its rival Intuitive Surgical; the merged company instead developed the Da Vinci Surgical System.

Dong-A University Hospital (Korean: 동아대학교의료원) is a major general hospital affiliated with Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Stifelman</span> American physician and urologist

Michael D. Stifelman Michael D. Stifelman, M.D., is Chair of Urology at Hackensack University Medical Center, Director of Robotic Surgery at Hackensack Meridian Health, and Professor and Inaugural Chair of Urology at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazor Robotics</span>

Mazor Robotics was an Israeli medical device company and manufacturer of a robotic guidance system for spine surgery that was acquired by Medtronic in December 2018. Surgeons that utilized Mazor Robotics Renaissance generally specialize in orthopedic surgery or neurosurgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brainlab</span>

Brainlab is a privately held German medical technology company headquartered in Munich, Bavaria. Brainlab develops software and hardware for radiotherapy and radiosurgery, and the surgical fields of neurosurgery, ENT and craniomaxillofacial, spine surgery, and traumatic interventions. Their products focus on image-guided surgery and radiosurgery, digital operating room integration technologies, and cloud-based data sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verily</span> Life sciences research organization

Verily Life Sciences LLC, also known as Verily, is Alphabet Inc.'s research organization devoted to the study of life sciences. The organization was formerly a division of Google X, until August 10, 2015, when Sergey Brin announced that the organization would become an independent subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. with restructuring completed on October 2, 2015. On December 7, 2015, Google Life Sciences was renamed Verily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudson Regional Hospital</span>

Hudson Regional Hospital (HRH) is an acute care hospital, located on the Hackensack River, in Secaucus, New Jersey, on Meadowlands Parkway near Route 3. HRH has a helipad for transporting injured persons from the scene of an accident to the hospital and/or for transferring patients in critical need of specialized services from HRH to another hospital having that capability.

Catherine Jane Mohr is a medical researcher from New Zealand, residing in the United States, who specializes in developing telemanipulator robotics for making surgery less invasive, and therefore providing faster recovery for patients. She had also designed fuel cells for land vehicles and high-altitude airplanes and studied sustainable architecture. Mohr is on the faculty of Stanford Medical School and is currently President of the Intuitive Foundation, the corporate foundation of Intuitive Surgical.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Feder, Barnaby J. (2008-05-04). "Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  2. Moukheiber, Zina. "Dr. Robot". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  3. 1 2 3 "ReFlexion Medical Names Frederic H. Moll to its Board of Directors". MarketWired. January 19, 2016. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  4. "Intuitive | da Vinci Robotic Assisted Surgical Systems". Intuitive Surgical. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  5. "Auris Health". www.aurishealth.com. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  6. "Hansen Medial | Press Releases". phx.corporate-ir.net. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  7. 1 2 Tindera, Michela. "Johnson & Johnson To Buy Auris Health, A Robotics Rival to Intuitive Surgical". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  8. "Auris Surgical Robotics, cofounded by superstar Fred Moll, has quietly closed on a ton of money". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  9. "Xconomy: Auris Health's Surgical Robot Gets FDA Green Light for Lung Cancer". Xconomy. 2018-03-23. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  10. Hale, Conor (December 20, 2019). "Johnson & Johnson to take over Verb Surgical, its robotics venture with Verily". FierceBiotech.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2020.