"Intuitive demonstrated its telesurgery capabilities by remotely connecting two surgeons to perform a transatlantic demonstration at the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS) conference in Strasbourg, France.
This landmark event involved Doug Stoddard, MD, located in Peachtree Corners, GA, and Andrea Pakula, MD, located remotely in Strasbourg, France. Together, using a dual console da Vinci 5 system, they performed a telesurgery procedure on an advanced tissue model developed by Intuitive to replicate the behavior of live tissue.
During the demonstration, Stoddard, whose console was alongside the da Vinci 5 patient cart and tissue model, was able to pass control of surgical instruments back and forth remotely to Pakula, located at the remote surgeon console. This included Force Feedback, enabling both surgeons to feel the forces exerted on the advanced tissue model by the instruments, despite being more than 4,000 miles apart.
Speaking at the SRS conference, Intuitive Chief Executive Officer Dave Rosa said: “Telesurgery is an area Intuitive has been thoughtfully innovating in for many years. It is a capability that has the potential to improve patient access to minimally invasive care, but its success depends on careful development in several areas.
“At Intuitive we’ve built robotic surgical technology from the ground up and our focus has always been patient safety and delivering real value—not technology for technology’s sake. For 30 years, we’ve created products that help healthcare providers deliver better care, improve clinician and care team experiences, and drive efficiencies in care delivery.
“Telesurgery is just one part of our telecollaboration suite, which includes telementoring, teleproctoring, and dual console surgery, that can help clinical teams to improve outcomes and reduce the total cost of care. It’s exciting to see progress, but we’re clear there’s still a long way to go.”
Telesurgery — the ability of a surgeon to perform an operation remotely from the patient via a robotic surgical system — became feasible in 2001 when surgeons performed the first transatlantic procedure, dubbed Operation Lindbergh, between the U.S. and Strasbourg, France.
“While not a new idea for Intuitive, telesurgery requires a high performing network infrastructure and a robotic system designed for remote collaboration to be successful and sustainable. Our focus is not on being first but on being rigorous in building the infrastructure to support safety, reliability, and consistent use,” said Brian Miller, PhD, Intuitive’s executive vice president and chief digital officer, who was an engineer supporting Operation Lindbergh.
This year marks Intuitive’s 30th year of developing robotic-assisted technology with the goal of improving patient outcomes, improving patient and care team experience, increasing access to minimally invasive care, and lowering the total cost to treat. In Intuitive's first three decades, surgeons performed nearly 17 million da Vinci procedures, and nearly 90,000 surgeons have been trained to use Intuitive’s systems.
The telesurgery software on the da Vinci 5 system that was shown during this demonstration was used for demonstration purposes only. The technology is still in development, is not 510(k) cleared or CE marked, and the safety and effectiveness of the product has not been established. The technology is not currently for sale and cannot be made available nor put into service in the U.S. or in the European Union."
Source: Intuitive, The Robot Report
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