Adapt or Be Left Behind
Follow these 5 trends to prepare for surgery's exciting future.
C
hange seems to happen in the blink of an eye, doesn't it?
Think about what you've already witnessed over the
course of your career. Surgeons who used to perform dis-
abling open procedures are entering joints, abdomens and organs
laparoscopically and endoscopically. Robot-assisted surgery is
smarter and more automated. It's getting harder to tell the differ-
ence between surgical images and actual anatomy. Patients who
used to spend days recovering in hospitals after joint replace-
ments are walking out of outpatient facilities hours after they
hobbled in. Surgery's infection point? We've already witnessed a
series of them, but there are even more on the horizon that will
once again transform surgical care.
Robotic surgery expands
The da Vinci surgical robot has been instrumental in the
development of robotic surgery, but it's the story of one company
and one machine that's mostly used for performing prostatec-
tomies. The market is set to expand significantly based on the
broad concept of placing advanced robotics and cutting-edge
imaging between surgeon and patient. Numerous companies are
investing in the development of smaller, more affordable plat-
forms for abdominal surgery, spine and orthopedics.
That increased competition in the marketplace will drive down
the cost of robotics, making it more affordable for surgery centers
and health systems with smaller capital equipment budgets. But I
think the future of robotics will be even more disruptive and offer
the same game-changing potential as the da Vinci did before it
entered the mainstream. For instance, I believe microrobots and
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On Point
Mark A. Talamini, MD, MBA
