Orlando, USA & Luanda, Angola, 04 July, 2025 - On June 14, Professor Vipul Patel, President of the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS), remotely performed a successful radical prostatectomy from Orlando, Florida, using the Toumai® Surgical Robot on a patient located in Luanda, Angola. Despite a one-way network distance of 17,000 km, the procedure was completed in approximately 90 minutes, demonstrating low latency, high precision, and exceptional stability across continents.
What made this surgery truly historic is that it was conducted under an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption (IDE), making it the world’s first FDA-approved robotic telesurgery on a human subject. This regulatory milestone signifies the initial endorsement of telesurgery within the U.S. system and paves the way for its broader global adoption.
As the first-ever transcontinental robotic telesurgery between the United States and Africa, this achievement marks a major leap in medical accessibility for underserved regions and highlights the humanitarian potential of remote surgery to bridge healthcare disparities. The procedure attracted widespread international media coverage, including from ABC News, AP News, and Africa News.
The operation took place at the Cardeal Dom Alexandre do Nascimento Hospital Complex (CHDCP) in Luanda. The patient was diagnosed with prostate cancer three months earlier and became the recipient of world-class surgical care from one of the field’s most experienced robotic surgeons. In an interview with ABC News, Professor Patel stated: “Prostate cancer is very common in Africa, especially in Angola, but people haven’t been getting screened or treated effectively. With robotic telesurgery, we no longer need to fly 14 hours to Angola to operate.”
Dr. Chao He, President of MicroPort® MedBot™, congratulated the success of this transcontinental telesurgery, emphasizing that the four remote procedures performed with the Toumai® Surgical Robot in Angola demonstrate how advanced surgical technology can transcend geographic barriers and bridge critical gaps in healthcare access. Furthermore, MicroPort® MedBot™ has trained a local team of surgeons and nurses in robotic techniques. Today, Angolan surgeons are fully capable of performing robotic surgeries independently — an inspiring milestone that offers a replicable model for other resource-constrained regions worldwide.
About MicroPort® MedBot™
Commenced its development for laparoscopic surgery robots in 2014, and officially established in Shanghai in 2015, Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. ("MicroPort® MedBot™", stock code: 02252.HK), a subsidiary of MicroPort Scientific Corporation ("MicroPort®", stock code: 00853.HK), is currently the only surgical robot company in the world with businesses covering five promising subsectors of surgical robots, including endoscopy, orthopedics, vascular intervention, natural orifice surgery, and percutaneous puncture. At MicroPort® MedBot™, we are committed to meeting the growing demand for cutting-edge robotic surgery. By integrating advanced research on robotics, control algorithms, image-based navigation, and precision imaging, we provide comprehensive intelligent surgical solutions to prolong and reshape the lives of patients, lead the advancement of robotic surgery, and shape the era of intelligent surgery.
More information is available at: www.medbotsurgical.com/en