Melbourne, Australia，01 August 2023 — Between July 24-26, the Annual Meeting of the Society for Robotic Surgery 2023 (SRS 2023) was successfully held in Melbourne, Australia. Three products from Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. (MicroPort® MedBot™), namely the Toumai® Four-arm Laparoscopic Surgical Robot (Toumai®), the SkyWalker™ Orthopedic Surgical Robot (SkyWalker™), and the Evolution® Medial-Pivot Knee System (Evolution®) from MicroPort® Orthopedics Inc. (MicroPort® Orthopedics) were showcased at this academic event. They demonstrated the innovative advantages and technical strengths of China's surgical robots to over 1,400 experts and scholars from around the world. These products attracted many domestic and foreign attendees who wished to experience and test-drive them, with their operational performance receiving wide recognition.
The SRS 2023 was hosted by the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS), attracting more than 50 top surgical robotics companies and over a thousand experts and practitioners from around the world. During the conference, MicroPort® delivered five keynote speeches which deeply analyzed and interpreted the latest progress in the minimally invasive surgery diagnosis and treatment field. Represented by Toumai® and SkyWalker™, these speeches were delivered from the perspective of MicroPort® MedBot™'s industrial layout, clinical applications and 5G practical achievements. They demonstrated the innovative ideas and technical strength of domestic surgical robots.
Jonathan Chen, Chief International Business Officer at MicroPort®, shared an overview and product layout of MicroPort® MedBot™ with the experts in attendance. Zhong Li, Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs and Business Development at MicroPort® MedBot™, shared the practical achievements of Toumai® in conducting 5G remote surgeries. Following animal experiments and rigorous and thorough technical, scientific, and ethical demonstrations, Toumai® has assisted experts in minimally invasive surgery in China to successfully carry out dozens of 5G remote animal surgery demonstrations and multi-department 5G remote clinical surgeries. Not only has Toumai® encompassed a wide range of surgical procedures and departments, but it has repeatedly set global firsts as well.
Professor Shuo Wang from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (also known as Zhejiang First Hospital) shared with overseas colleagues the clinical application and key results of Toumai® at Zhejiang First Hospital. To date, Toumai® has assisted in the completion of 72 surgeries at Zhejiang First Hospital, covering almost all laparoscopic surgeries in urology, including a series of complex operations such as radical nephrectomy for huge left kidney tumor plus retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, 'one-step' laparoscopic radical nephroureterectomy, total intracorporeal radical cystectomy plus orthotopic neobladder, and renal pedicle aneurysm. In addition, Zhejiang First Hospital recently partnered with the operation room of the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University in Quanzhou (also known as Quanzhou First Hospital) to successfully complete two challenging urologic surgeries spanning thousands of miles – the world's first 5G remote robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and the world's first 5G remote 4-arm robot radical cystectomy. This reflects Toumai®'s commitment to meeting clinical needs and promoting the homogenization of medical resources and is an important area of progression that should not be ignored in future robotic surgeries.
During the conference, Jake Adams, Commercial Vice President at MicroPort® Orthopedics, introduced the workflow and digital ecosystem of the SkyWalker™ assisted surgical procedure to the attending experts. He also introduced the ‘strong union' of SkyWalker™ and MicroPort® Orthopedics' Evolution® Medial-Pivot Knee System as a knee replacement surgery solution. SkyWalker™ can provide individualized analysis and plan formulation for different patients before surgery, which guarantees precision and personalized surgery, fully demonstrating the advantages of surgical robots. Its digital ecosystem includes, amongst others, AI-driven data insights, predictive analytics, remote patient monitoring, personalized patient education and engagement, and personalized surgical support. Clinical applications such as remote preoperative planning automation and 5G remote robot-assisted total knee arthroplasty (TKA) can be achieved based on this digital ecosystem.
Jake Adams emphasized that the combination of SkyWalker™ and MicroPort® Orthopedics’ Evolution® Medial-Pivot Knee System can integrate the kinematics of the medial pivot knee, real-time gap balance, and intraoperative data to optimize SkyWalker™’s operation further, providing patients with accurate knee replacement surgery solutions and improving patients’ postoperative quality of life – which could be described as a ‘Power of Three’.
Finally, Jake Adams also demonstrated a knee replacement surgery performed by Professor Hao Zhong from the First People's Hospital of Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, for a 70-year-old female patient. By reviewing the preoperative and intraoperative steps of SkyWalker™, the attending experts directly saw how SkyWalker™ assisted doctors in standardizing and precisely completing surgery, promoting quicker patient recovery with less trauma, which earned widespread recognition from the attending experts.