Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Surgical robots await medical, investment acceptance
By Marc Songini, Special to Mass High Tech
Online video firms target small video publishing companies
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Life science startups finding investments
MHT Emerging Technologies Forum: Robotics
The remotely controlled, robot-assisted surgery technology pie is a promising one. Yet, for Massachusetts investors, scientists and doctors, a number of obstacles are blocking them from a hefty slice.
Robotic systems assist in performing delicate, precise surgeries, including laparoscopic, or minimally invasive, types. In robot-assisted surgery, surgeons make small incisions and place ports in the patient through which they run tubes. These carry cameras and surgical instruments that improve visualization and control in hard-to-reach places inside the patient. The surgeon uses a console to control the arms, offering a safer and more efficient alternative to the traditional open surgery with its larger incisions and increased risk.
Indeed, so efficient is the nascent robotic-surgery movement there is already a strong local footprint in its deployment. Among the institutions using surgical robotics are Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Boston, and Massachusetts General Hospital. The robots there assist in urological, cardiac, gynecological and other laparoscopic procedures.
Despite their newness, cost, big size and special training requirements, these systems are helping physicians, observed Hiep Nguyen, a urologist at Children’s Hospital. Since 2001, specially trained surgeons at Children’s have been deploying robots in complicated procedures. With robotic procedures, surgeons are more effective and patients recover faster and endure less pain, among other benefits, he said.
As an example, it would normally take a proficient surgeon about two to three minutes to tie a knot with conventional laparoscopy. However, with the robot, it can take just 10 to 30 seconds. A standard laparoscopic pyeloplasty — kidney operation — can take four to five hours, but with the robot it may take only one to two hours. His research has also indicated that the quality of the surgery performed by the robot is superior to that of manual laparoscopy.
Those benefits have resulted at a growth rate of 50 percent annually since 2004 for the leading surgical robotic system, according to Mark Manasas, manager of the surgical and interventional products group at Boston-based Cambridge Consultants Inc. The firm offers consulting services for engineering and technology development, including the field of robotic surgery.
“It’s part of a big tide,” said Kathleen Hagan, president of Watertown-based management consultancy Hagan & Co., who oversaw a study of the Massachusetts robotics industry last year. “The fact that it’s gotten so big so fast tells you the market is here.”
New England — and the Boston area, in particular, with its considerable academic, hospital, and other robotic research development resources — is in an excellent position to reap the benefits of the surgical robotics movement, said Nguyen. Yet the biggest robotics player by far is Intuitive Surgical Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif. Its da Vinci robotic-assisted systems and procedures have locked in about 70 percent of the existing market, according to estimates. In 2004, there were 286 da Vincis in the field, while for 2009 Cambridge Consultants expects the installed total to be about 1,300. There is nothing like it in Massachusetts, where no company has yet fielded a product, said Nguyen, who is also co-director of the Center for Robotic Surgery and director of Robotic Surgery Research and Training at Children’s.
Intuitive said that da Vincis have been used in tens of thousands of operations, including general, urologic, gynecologic, thoracoscopic, and thoracoscopically assisted cardiotomy procedures.
One interesting local company is Westwood-based startup HeartLander Surgical Inc., which is developing a device that can be deployed on the surface of a beating heart. The company is still pre-clinical, according to CEO Richard Berenson. “Lots more animals to go before we are ready for people,” he said in an e-mail response to questions.
No other homegrown product is even close to the marketplace, said Nguyen. Nevertheless, there are smaller, less visible ventures ongoing for a variety of robotic applications. For instance, Children’s is working with small companies to bring various technologies to market, including a system for treating trauma of the abdomen, said Nguyen.
The experts acknowledged the problems, which include educating investors on the potential of the field. Moreover, a lot of questions remain. The robotic surgery industry is begging for proof that there are long-term benefits to the patient. “The problem here is you’ve got to do a study over five years or nine years, to show the benefits last longer than what is already on the market,” said Manasas.
“The true utility to patient outcomes is still being defined,” said Peter Dunn, executive medical director of the operating room at Mass. General Hospital. Most of the statistical benefits are from the robotic vendors themselves and not third parties. “I would say we’re in the infancy of the technology.”
Despite the obstacles, one thing in favor of robotics is that patients see it as a plus, said Dunn. In fact, some patients will only go to the hospital that provides the technology, he said.
Given that demand will grow, there is going to be opportunity for investors and inventors, said experts. The question remains, however, if the New England investment and invention community will get much of a share of that opportunity or leave it to other players.
70% The biggest robotics player by far is Intuitive Surgical Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., whose da Vinci robotic-assisted systems and procedures have locked in about 70 percent of the existing market, according to estimates.
Marc Songini is a freelance writer in Mansfield.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
