Five big topics for health robotics ahead of SRS - Society of Robotic Surgery
It's that time of year again where anyone who is anyone in the field of robotic siurgey and mores so... healthcare robotics will assemble in Miami to hear the latest and greatest on where robotics in healthcare is and is heading.
So you have some homework to do !! And here are 5 topics I'm helping you get up to speed with for the upcoming event. These are five key topics that will be explored in great depth at this years SRS 2026 meeting in Miami.
So strap in and make sure you know what we will all be talking about.
Competition in soft tissue surgical robotics
I've recently covered the increasing amount of competition in soft tissue surgical robotics - and the impact that might have on Intuitive - or not. There are a vast number of surgical robotics companies out there that are directly or indirectly going up against da Vinci. But of note are a few recent moves:
1) Ottava - I'm now convinced they will have a showing at SRS ahead of their clearences by FDA. They have to build momentum. Many think this will be a major competitor to Intuitive. I still have my doubts on what "major competitor" actually means to people. But let's not forget this is Johnson & Johnson with Ethicon powered instruments.
2) Medicaroid just got EU - CE mark on Hinotori, and that now allows them to bring their system onto the EU market. I think this is important as it is a proven system in Japan and we know it works and works well. But it is no longer fighting with the Xi... it is now up against the might DV5 - and that is a whole different battle. It was hard agains the feature rich Xi - but the DV5 is in another league.
3) Microport with Toumai just got CE mark for Telesurgery - so now they can perform telesurgery in Europe. And this has been a feature that people have been chosing to decide to take the Toumai system. Let's see how telesurgery is positioned at SRS as it will be a big topic. (article here)
4) We will see w lot of "thinning" out of robotics. Take Storz and their winding up of Asensus on the robotic side. I think this is the start of a sensible consolidation on the side of soft tissue robotics. Companies will understand they can easily make a robot. But they will all learn that making profit from a sustainable robotic business is the real test. And few will pass that test.
5) Automation and autonomy will come into many systems. It's not going to be a "here it is" oneday. It will be a series of creeping improvements - automations - chained automations - automatied surgical steps - autonomous surgeicalk steps - chained autonomous surgical steps - and voila ---- we are at autonomy. 10 years away. But accelerating. Already we see Chinese companies doing this in the lab. We see Intuitive showing demonstrators. Chip sets, cloud infrastructure, edge processing and foundation models are all lining up. The competition that gets there first will start to have an advantage. Watch this one closely.
Endoluminal GI robotics
You're going to hear more and more about this category of flexible - endoluminal robotics. Moves by Olympus directly in robotic "endoscopy" and their continued support of Swan EndoSurgical show that the leader endoluminal imaging is serious about the next frontier of endoluminal therapeutics.
Add into that Endoquest that continually make strides, and my suspicion is that Medtronic, JNJ and Intuitive all have active programs - and well this could be the next big space in health robotics. Not easy - and challenging for reimbursement - "who does it" - but the pay off would be huge. Oh and don't forget that the Chinese companies are already pouring massive resources into this to get ahead of the curve (Pun Intended.)
Endovascular Robotics
Old news is becoming new news. For a decade or more companies have been trying to work out the right strategy for endoluminal - endovascular robotics. That strategy is now levelling out with a host of endovascular robotics companies (read more below) getting clearances (Sentante now CE marked and FDA breakthrough designated), XCath having done first in human stroke thrombectomy at distance. Robocath and Stereotaxis merging to bring. combination navigation, mechanical and magnetic approaches. With the companies working out the right business model approaches for hub n spoke - but then how to use Peripheral - Cardiac - Endo Cardiac - EP and Neuro in combination devices to ensure that the actual commercial - usage and safety profile stacks up.
Non Invasive / Surgical Robotic Therapies
Histosonics grabs the headlines. A robotic arm, highly focused ultrasound that liquifies tumours (Liquefaction) with zero incisions. But they are not alone. There are a host of robotic companies coming with similar or already using combination robotics - energy - navigation and feedback loops as minimally invasively as possible to avoid surgery. It's often thought of as "The stuff of StarTrek" - but it's here and now. Some monster investment rounds are fueling this. We have Petal Surgical, Profound medical, Focal One, Edap TMS, Sonocare Medical and many others. We also have a lot of energy based modalities that are now going to combine with robotic delivery platforms such as ION - Monarch (yes slightly invasive but non surgical.) We will see an explosion of robotic and navigation ablation therapies - Liquefaction therapies - and metabolic adjustment therapies. (I won't even go into a couple of super exciting neuro applications that will be non invasive for stroke thrombectomy and other neurological dissorder. - Yes - non Invasive !!!!) Watch this space.
Any of these technologies that are coming could make both surgery and many catheter based therapies irrelevant. Read More Here
Humanoids in healthcare
Elon Musk and his Bullshit statements on totally replacing surgoens in five years - is annoying hype. But you have to see beyond that hype to the reality of humanoids in healthcare. As we apporoach staff shortages that will cripple the healthcare systems in the next 15 years we must backfill a lot of roles with "something." Humanoids and humanoid form factors (let's stop thinking they are just exactly human shaped) will change the way we administer healthcare in the next 15 years. Human shaped robots at the bedside - scrubbed holding lap instruments is a nonsense. But companies like Peritas AI are doing some of the "back ground" health work like in sterile services. There are tons of companies working on Operating Room circulating humaoids. CardioSentry is looking at Humanoids for cardiac ultrasound. We have several comapnies looking at assistants in surgery (that I can buy) - assisting a DV5 at bedside. Running the back table... yes.
You also have human based form factors such as LEM Surgical in spine robotics (and more). Which will combine human based form factors with automation / autonomy. It's here and now.
But watch this space beacsue as NVIDIA and others drop better foundation AI models - not only do we get to autonomy in systems like da Vinci or Edge Medical - faster. We get Humanoid real world models that can train humanoids to do a lot of the helathcare tasks. Not replacing humans - but back filling the ever growing workforce gap.
These are just the humble musings of a hack in surgical robotics. Take them as you will and they are for educational purposes only. Don't try and invest based on any of this -- it's not wise!!!!
