*Using a system from Remedy Robotics, Dr. Vitor Pereira remotely performed a brain angiogram from one Toronto hospital while a bedside team supported the patient at another.

Katie Cooper and Kevin Van Paassen/Unity Health Toronto

Imagine: in a small town where there is not a single specialist in vascular neurosurgery, a person has a stroke. A few years ago, it would have been a verdict. Today, thanks to the technology of remote robotic thrombectomy, a patient can undergo a complex operation, and the surgeon will be hundreds of kilometers away. This is not fiction — this is the reality that Corindus has created with its CorPath GRX system.

How does this technology work?

The system consists of two parts: a robotic installation at the patient's bedside and the surgeon's workstation, which can be located anywhere — in a neighboring city or even in another country.

"The robot mimics the movements of my hands with unprecedented precision, eliminating the natural physiological tremor," explains Dr. Ryan Maddick, one of the first surgeons to master the system.

The process looks like this:

Local doctors carry out preparatory procedures and install a catheter in the patient

A specialized robot is connected to the catheter

A neurosurgeon from the regional center remotely controls the robot, observing the process through high-resolution monitors

The robot allows you to perform manipulations with an accuracy of up to a micron

Why is this a breakthrough? The numbers speak for themselves.

According to WHO, stroke is the second leading cause of death in the world. Every minute of delay in treatment means the death of 1.9 million neurons. Telerobotics solves a key problem — lack of time and specialists.

The critical window for successful treatment of ischemic stroke is only 6 hours
Only 4% of patients today receive the necessary thrombectomy on time
300% — the availability of the procedure increases so much with the introduction of telerobotics in regional hospitals

"We can increase the number of patients receiving timely care from the current 4% to 40-50%," the developers of the system say.

What does this change for patients?

Geographical equality
Rural residents have access to the same qualified assistance as residents of megacities.

The rate of resuscitation
The time from the patient's admission to the start of the operation is reduced by 40-60%

Quality of life
Timely intervention reduces the risk of disability by 70%

Technical details: How is a robot superior to a human?

The CorPath GRX system has capabilities that are not available even to the most experienced surgeon.:

Suppression of tremor
Filtration of microscopic vibrations of the surgeon's hand

Increased accuracy
Converting large movements into micro-movements of tools

Tactile feedback
The surgeon feels the resistance of the tissues, despite the remote control

Challenges and limitations

The technology faces several major hurdles:

Signal delays
Even minimal delays in data transmission can critically affect the accuracy of the operation.

Regulatory barriers
Licensing doctors to practice in different jurisdictions requires a change in legislation.

Cost of equipment
One system costs about $1 million, which limits its distribution.

Managing Digital Surgeons

As such systems spread, the question arises of the effective use of expensive equipment and specialists. How can robots optimally distribute their operating time between patients from different hospitals? How to maximize the workload of unique specialists?

Specialized management platforms may be required to solve such problems. For example, the logic of the ecosystem jobtorob.com , which positions itself as the world's first robot hiring platform, could be adapted for the medical field. Through such a system, a hospital could "invite" a robot surgeon and operator to perform complex procedures, paying only for the actual operating time, rather than buying equipment worth millions of dollars.

"This is changing the paradigm of emergency care. We are moving towards a model where the specialist will be delivered to the patient digitally, rather than physically," says the professor of neurology.

The future, in which everyone, regardless of their place of residence, will be able to receive the help of the best specialists, is getting closer. And, perhaps, soon the medical record will contain not only the name of the attending physician, but also the serial number of the robot surgeon, whose "professional achievements" are taken into account in a single digital healthcare ecosystem.