TRANSCONTINENTAL ROBOT ASSISTED TELESURGERY — Medtronic Eureka



_MG_8158-PhoneDeck-2012_by_Georg-RoskeIn 2001, surgery had a man-on-the-moon moment. In New York City, an endocrine surgeon sat down at a robotic console and operated on a patient, removing his diseased gallbladder.

What was so special about this? The patient was thousands of miles away in Strasbourg, France.

It was called Operation Lindbergh and the world had seen the first case of what we now call remote surgery, or telesurgery. The surgeon – Professor Jacques Marescaux – founded the European Institute of Telesurgery at the University of Strasbourg in 1994. His stated aim was ‘to start the future technological revolutions in the field of surgery, and not to fall behind them.’

Nearly 15 years on from Operation Lindbergh, and the possibility of routine remote surgery is coming yet closer – along with other technological revolutions in healthcare, which will change the way sick people are treated almost unrecognisably…

Click here to read my interview with Professor Frank Fitzek from The 5G Lab Germany about what 5G will mean for healthcare