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.
Medtronic plc is an American medical device company. The company's operational and executive headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its legal headquarters are in Ireland due to its acquisition of Irish-based Covidien in 2015. While it primarily operates in the United States, it operates in more than 150 countries and employs over 90,000 people. It develops and manufactures healthcare technologies and therapies.
Boston Scientific Corporation ("BSC"), 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).
The Lindbergh operation was a complete tele-surgical operation carried out by a team of French surgeons located in New York on a patient in Strasbourg, France using telecommunications solutions based on high-speed services and sophisticated Zeus surgical robot. The operation was performed successfully on September 7, 2001 by Professor Jacques Marescaux and his team from the IRCAD. This was the first time in medical history that a technical solution proved capable of reducing the time delay inherent to long distance transmissions sufficiently to make this type of procedure possible. The name was derived from the American aviator Charles Lindbergh, because he was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
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.
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.
A mechanical arm is a machine that mimics the action of a human arm. Mechanical arms are composed of multiple beams connected by hinges powered by actuators. One end of the arm is attached to a firm base while the other has a tool. They can be controlled by humans either directly or over a distance. A computer-controlled mechanical arm is called a robotic arm. However, a robotic arm is just one of many types of different mechanical arms.
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.
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.
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.
Dr. Frederic Moll is a physician, medical device developer and entrepreneur, specializing in the field of medical robotics.
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.
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.
Robert W. Duggan is an American billionaire, entrepreneur, philanthropist, biotech executive, health care executive, educator, and human rights activist. He is the former CEO of biopharmaceutical company Pharmacyclics and was previously CEO of surgical systems maker Computer Motion from 1997 to 2003. Bob is the majority shareholder and is on the boards of directors of Pulse Biosciences and Summit Therapeutics, where he is also CEO.
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.
Dr. Georgi Stranski University Hospital is a major hospital located in Pleven, Bulgaria. It is one of the oldest in the country, as well as the largest in northern Bulgaria.
CMR Surgical is a British medical device company based in Cambridge. It produces a robot-assisted surgery system called Versius. The company achieved Unicorn status in 2019 being valued at more than $1 billion.
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.
John Freund is an American satirist and business executive. Freund and collaborator David Porter created the 1981 satirical poster Bedtime for Brezhnev and co-authored the 1982 satirical book The Official MBA Handbook or How to Succeed in Business Without a Harvard MBA, which spent 16 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Freund is the co-founder of Intuitive Surgical, and the co-founder and former CEO of Arixa Pharmaceuticals. He founded Skyline Ventures in 1997.
US$6.22 billion (2022)
US$1.58 billion (2022)
