Google will develop robot surgeons

Sofya Lopaeva, Vademecum 

Johnson & Johnson and the biomedical division of Alphabet Inc (formerly Google) have created an independent company that will develop smaller, but more high-tech and cheaper robotic systems for surgery.

According to Reuters (J&J, Alphabet aim for smarter, smaller, cheaper surgical robot), the development of surgical robots will be handled by Verb Surgical Inc, whose head is Scott Hunnekens, who previously led Volcano Corp. The headquarters of Verb Surgical Inc will be located in Mountain View (California).

In March 2015, J&J and Google announced that they were going to develop robotic surgery technologies together. Since then, Google has gone through a reorganization, changing its name to Alphabet, and its biomedical division – Google Life Sciences – became an independent company in the Alphabet holding and was named Verily.

According to Gary Pruden, head of J&J's international medical products business, modern robotic systems, including Da Vinci robots, which are manufactured by Intuitive Surgical Inc, are too bulky. In addition, when performing such operations, the surgeon must "sit at the control panel three meters from the patient."

The robot that Verb will develop will take up 20% less space, which will allow the specialist to be near the patient during surgery and will cost significantly less than existing systems, the price of which may exceed $ 2 million, Pruden said. At the same time, the company already has a basic prototype of a robot surgeon, it was developed at Ethicon in 2014.

Modern robots are used mainly for the removal of prostate cancers and gynecological operations. It is assumed that the Verb robot will be used in a large number of interventions, including thoracic (thoracic surgery) and colorectal surgery, as well as during operations to reduce the size of the stomach. Alphabet, in turn, promises to provide the system with a "self-learning ability": the robot will be able to analyze video recordings of past operations and indicate to the surgeon where it is better to make an incision. According to Pruden, the improvement of the robot will take several more years.

Google is engaged in several medical projects, including the development of "smart" contact lenses together with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru

15.12.2015