Robot surgery on the fly

A team of military, telecommunications and surgical experts are using an unmanned aircraft and sophisticated communication tools to take mobile telesurgery closer to reality.

In telesurgery, a surgeon performs operations using a surgical robot and advanced computer technology on a patient located some distance away.

Timothy Broderick MD, assistant professor of surgery at University of Cincinnati (UC) and medical director for its Center for Surgical Innovation (CSI), is leading the first test of a prototype communications platform for mobile telesurgery, the High Altitude Platforms for Mobile Robotic Telesurgery (HAPsMRT).

This two-phase telesurgery experiment will take place between Simi Valley, California, a desolate and arid area surrounded by hills and plains, and Seattle, Washington, between the 5 and 9th of June.

The HAPsMRT model, developed in collaboration with the US Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center and the University of Washington, uses an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV), or ‘drone’, as the communications connection point between a surgeon in one part of the country and a patient located hundreds of miles away.