Small Robots And Big Money: What’s The Basis of $98 Bln Future Healthcare
AnalysisBit News Today3 min read
Smaller incisions lead to reduced wounding, fewer complications, decreased blood loss, and shorter stays in NHS hospital beds, averaging just two days rather than a fortnight. However, minimal access surgery involves a steep learning curve and demands too much physical effort to be deployed broadly.
To address this, the American firm Intuitive developed the da Vinci surgical system in 2000. The 750-kilogram setup enabled surgeons to remain seated while viewing a display and remotely guiding robotic mechanisms fitted with instruments for keyhole operations. Around 12 million operations are conducted annually, with minimal access surgery used in half of them and warranted in the vast majority of the rest. Of the six million keyhole operations performed, merely 800,000 employ the da Vinci system. And while the da Vinci was ground-breaking, it is still not accessible enough, with only 5 to 10 per cent of operations robotic worldwide. The high price of the da Vinci system is the main factor restricting its adoption.
Robot-assisted laparoscopic procedures show immense commercial promise, with the market expected to expand from $4 billion to $20 billion by 2025.
Enter the game-changer: modular, affordable robotic systems
Based in Cambridge in the UK, CMR aimed to challenge Intuitive Surgical by offering a more adaptable and less costly machine. Drawing on innovations from mobile telephony and the space sector, CMR created Versius with portable, modular arms intended to become standard surgical theatre equipment.
Versius’ added value lies in its flexibility. Rather than mounting every instrument on a single central tower, CMR equipped each tool with its own independent robotic arm and pillar, all operated via the surgeon's console. This robot arm mimics exactly the human arm, allowing an experienced surgeon to operate up to eight hours a day instead of two.
AI and care robots join the mix
On the whole, AI could decrease care expenses by up to 50 percent while boosting clinical results by 30 to 40 percent. Driven by the pressing need to streamline workflows and improve the quality of healthcare, the care assistant robots market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 36 percent between 2017 and 2021.
The future of robotics in healthcare
An independent panel has forecast that a coming wave of technologies will reshape operations for millions of patients, delivering smaller, lighter, and likely cheaper surgical robots. A new generation of substantially lighter and more compact surgical robots scheduled for 2019 could be transported between operating rooms or different hospitals.
The Commission anticipates that robotic systems will become more widespread across cardiothoracic, colorectal, and gynaecological operations in the coming years. Future placement of surgical robots and specialised hubs must be coordinated more effectively to reconcile geographical fairness with cost considerations. NHS England should begin by directing a robotics strategy to guide the procurement and rollout of new surgical machines, a model that could later be applied to other technologies.
Greg Hager, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, noted that enhancing robotic surgery and lowering its cost is vital, as over 5 billion individuals lack access to quality surgical treatment and more than 5 million die as a result.
Laurel Riek, a computer science professor at UC San Diego, is collaborating with emergency medical staff to build robotic systems capable of recognizing clinician actions and promptly transporting supplies. These devices aim to ease staff burdens and bolster patient safety, while Frost & Sullivan projects that cognitive computing and artificial intelligence will save the healthcare sector over $150 billion by 2025.
