Robot operates for doctor 400 km away Hamilton hospital tout procedure as a world first
Joseph Brean National Post
Wednesday, March 05, 2003 ADVERTISEMENT
St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton announced yesterday it has established the world's first remote robotic surgery service, which completed two successful operations last Friday.
In the inaugural procedure, a surgeon in Hamilton performed a complex stomach operation on a woman in North Bay through a high-tech arrangement of sensors that transmitted the surgeon's hand movements through fibre-optic cable 400 kilometres away, where they were carried out by robotic arms on a North Bay operating table.
The robot surgeon, named Zeus, is to remain in service for operations that would otherwise require a trip out of North Bay to Southern Ontario.
In a news conference yesterday, ministers from the provincial and federal government lauded the operation on Claudette Fortier, 66, as a world first, and said it heralds a new era in health care in which distance is no barrier.
Last year, a gall bladder removal was conducted in a similar fashion between a New York telecommunications centre and a French hospital using the same equipment. But St. Joseph's played down that operation yesterday as a mere "feasibility test" of the equipment; it was not between two health centres, and was a far less complicated procedure.
The Hamilton program, which is to be expanded to health centres in Yellowknife and Chicoutimi, Que., was the ultimate goal of that original test, said Dr. Mehran Anvari, the surgeon who conducted last Friday's operation from Hamilton.
"This is not a one time event. This is a service we have established ... this is not a media stunt," said Dr. Craig McKinley, the junior surgeon who co-ordinated the procedure in North Bay.
Two remote operations were conducted last Friday, but one patient wanted to remain anonymous.
"When I was first approached, I was a little skeptical. It sounded a little strange" said Ms. Fortier, the other patient, who was grateful to the doctors for allowing her to be in and out of the hospital in a little over 24 hours.
In the laparoscopic procedure, the upper part of Mrs. Fortier's stomach was wrapped around her esophagus to control acid reflux, the painful regurgitation of stomach acids.
"It isn't everyday that someone gets to participate in such a landmark achievement," she said.
With the capacity for remote operations, patients in rural communities can be treated near home without the expense of travel, said Dr. Anvari.
He said the project, funded by the Canadian Health Info-structure Partnership Program, is aimed at one of the recommendations of the Romanow Commission on health care -- to assist rural and remote communities with telemedicine, including video-conferencing with doctors.
Jim Flaherty, the Ontario Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation, said the pioneering project ranks with other medical firsts in Ontario, such as the discovery of insulin and the invention of the cardiac pacemaker.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={18660EB9-ABB0-40F9-A28E-6503905B5D91}
