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Unified Standards for Remote Surgery

8 july 2025

Telesurgery has been attempted for nearly a quarter-century, with the first, dubbed the "Lindbergh Operation," conducted with French surgeons using a dedicated fiber optic line from New York to France in 2001. Since 2003, there have been a limited number of successful procedures reported in Canada, India, the US, and Europe.

Seeing a need for standards, industry and surgical leaders have produced guidelines, which were published in the World Journal of Surgery on June 28th. "Expert Consensus-Based Technical Guidelines for Remote Robotic-Assisted Surgery and Procedures." The comprehensive paper recognized the need for remote surgery—not just for rural United States' patients, but for the world. They state in their abstract, "...technical guidelines define the fundamental technical requirements to support the design, implementation, and scaling of safe, effective, and interoperable remote robotic-assisted surgical and procedural programs."

Courtesy: Wiley / World Journal of Surgery

Also from the abstract: "Remote robotic-assisted surgery and procedures offer significant potential to enhance access to surgical expertise, optimize patient outcomes, improve healthcare efficiency, reduce costs, and increase patient and provider satisfaction, aligning with the quintuple aim. By mitigating geographic barriers, addressing surgical deserts, and reducing travel burdens for surgeons, patients, and their families, remote robotic-assisted surgery and procedures can substantially expand access to high-quality health care..."

We applaud the collaborative research efforts of the authors and welcome continuing dialogue moving forward. To read the complete World Journal of Surgery report, please use this link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wjs.12653
See also: https://www.massdevice.com/top-surgical-robotics-companies-remote-surgery-guidelines/