Are You Ready To Have Someone Do Your Surgery 5000 Kilometres Away From You?

With the degree of tech advancements you’re seeing, are you even amazed or has it left you unfazed? At this point, to many, all of it seems like a natural progression of things, but the world’s starkly and strikingly different from the one you lived in 10 years ago. The medical world might concur.

In 2024, a lung tumour was being removed from a patient in China. And where was the operating surgeon? Nowhere to be seen. Actually, he was said to be 5000 km away doing the surgery remotely with the help of robotic instruments. Take that, Dr House. Like Star Trek, you might consider this a new frontier. It’s interesting, because here’s another way that technology has made geography a non-factor: something to be scoffed at.

Of course, the idea of operating on someone located far away might be both surreal and risky. Maybe, remote surgery isn’t entirely new. The first time it happened was in 2001. And that time, it was at a distance of more than 5000 km. But, maybe over time, it’s become less of a moonshot demonstration and more of a viable option for regular hospitals, as long as there’s infrastructure in place. Maybe, all the tech and networks now mean much greater reliability and much lesser latency, so, now, it may be a lot more clinically viable. Maybe, this could, kind of, expand the clinical capabilities of surgical robots much more than before.

Beyond China, this could be quite meaningful to India, too. If someone has a serious condition, they might have to travel to metropolitan cities. Could this be a way for them to receive advanced surgical care wherever they are? Of course, there would need to be robot-esque tech in those rural or remote regions, so there lies another barrier. At best, this just avoids travel costs or accommodation expenses.

It’s said that India has an indigenous surgical robot system of its own with around 5 detachable arms to help docs conduct robotic surgery. There’s said to be a console station with a monitor and a safety camera: if the doc looks away, the surgery is automatically paused to prevent accidental movements.

But, it sure is interesting how a robot might become an extension of a surgeon’s hands or eyes. Remember how Boman Irani remarked in the 2003 Bollywood movie Munnabhai MBBS how he wouldn’t be able to operate on a loved one, because his hand would tremble out of concern or fear? Maybe, if he did it remotely, the robotic arm would be steadier than a human hand and might even rotate with a greater range of motion. 

If a remote surgery is to be successful, the Internet connection has to be real stable with very little latency. Could some telecom player step up to provide this in a specialized manner? It would be an interesting partnership between a MedTech player and a Jio-esque company. If a device malfunctions mid-surgery, that could shroud the entire robotic surgery realm in doubt. Maybe a VR/AR company might chime in to help simulate surgical scenarios. And these robotic systems might be expensive, so maybe some MedTech startup could lease them or perhaps, someone could be philanthropic. And if doctors have to be taught how to operate a robotic console, would EdTech platforms be interested in providing speciality courses?

All of this might sound great, but execution may vary. Advanced robotic systems are expensive, plus there’s maintenance to think about and some technicians or specialists to keep handy.

Remote robotic surgery may be emblematic of how far humanity has come in terms of medical progress. But, getting this to scale en masse requires more than just a spoonful of optimism and sugar to help the medicine go down.
The next time you’re going under, would you want a cold robotic hand making the incision?