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Indian-origin surgeon removes cancer patient's prostate from 56 km away in first US robotic telesurgery
An Indian-origin surgeon removed a cancer patient's prostate from 35 miles away in what was reported as a first-of-its-kind surgery in the US.
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An Indian-origin surgeon in Florida has removed a cancer patient's prostate while sitting 35 miles (56km) away, in what hospital officials say is the first reported robotic telesurgery performed between two hospitals in the United States.
(Also read: Who is Nisha Verma? Indian-origin doctor goes viral for her response to if 'men can get pregnant')
Dr Vipul Patel carried out the procedure on October 25, operating from AdventHealth Celebration near Orlando while the patient, a 66-year-old man identified as Mark, lay in an operating theatre at AdventHealth Minneola.
According to The Guardian, the operation was conducted as part of a clinical study examining whether surgeons can safely perform complex procedures without being physically present beside patients.
How the remote operation worked
Patel, founder and medical director of AdventHealth's Global Robotics Institute, controlled robotic surgical instruments from the Celebration hospital. The system allowed him to perform a prostatectomy, a procedure to remove the prostate gland.
Surgeon Dr Marcio Moschovas and a medical team remained alongside Mark at Minneola, ready to intervene if required. AdventHealth subsequently told ABC News that the patient was recovering well.
The operation used the investigational Toumai robotic system developed by MicroPort MedBot. The hospital said Patel has previously performed more than 21,000 robotic prostatectomies.
Could telesurgery change access to healthcare?
“For generations, access to highly specialized care has often depended on where a patient lives,” Patel said.
“This study allows us to evaluate whether telesurgery could one day help reduce geographic barriers to specialized treatment.”
The Florida procedure followed 10 investigational telesurgeries conducted between Orlando and Luanda, Angola, and marked the research programme's expansion into hospitals within the US.
It was carried out under an investigational device exemption authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration. That permission allows researchers to study the technology but does not mean the system has received FDA approval or clearance for clinical use.
Researchers are assessing its safety, effectiveness, network reliability and cybersecurity. Beyond the usual risks of prostate surgery, remote operations could face connection failures or equipment problems, making a trained team at the patient's bedside essential.
Similar milestone in Europe
The Florida operation came months after surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta performed a prostate removal from London on a patient in Gibraltar, about 1,500 miles away.
(Also read: Indian-origin doctor Jitesh Patel to pay $14 million to settle allegations of false billing, unnecessary procedures)
That operation used a four-armed robot fitted with a 3D camera. According to King's College London, the delay between the surgeon's movements and the robot's response was just 0.06 seconds.
AdventHealth stressed that the Florida case remains part of an ongoing investigation and cannot, by itself, establish the technology's broader safety or effectiveness.
