In 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…