IISc director Govindan Rangarajan, Mohandas Pai kick off advanced robotic surgery at NU Hospitals – ET HealthWorld

With this, NU Hospitals became the first Nephro-Urology Super Specialty Hospital in the country to introduce the “Versius Robotic Surgical System,” a press release from the NU Hospitals said.

The hospital has four units, two in Bengaluru, one each in Shivamogga, Karnataka and Ambur in Tamil Nadu, and in Maldives.

The robotics-based surgery is set to become a game changer in health care, the IISc director said. “In fact, I want to say that this is the technology required for nephrology and urology. We want engineering and medicine to come together. For example, mRNA vaccines have saved billions of people across the world. Let me tell you that this basic technology was invented in a medical school. The medical school played a key role in the discovery of mRNA vaccine,” he said.

There are many areas. Rangarajan said, where IISc can collaborate with NU Hospitals. It is important that hospitals like NU can take advantage of scientific advances and jointly work on developing many initiatives. Our goal should be providing affordable technologies,” he said.

Pai, in his speech said, technology will be a game changer in the days to come, and this was more than evident during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Technology will also see many challenges, he said. “For example, we may soon see an India with an aging population. For example, in Japan, 35% of people don’t have any interaction with the opposite gender at all. This will bring down the fertility rates. Hence, we are seeing an aging population. There are many individuals in Korea and Japan who prefer to interact with systems rather than human beings. We must understand that this is the world we are going to enter,” he said.

AI, and algorithms may replace doctors and we may have a situation where robots may perform surgeries though we may still need doctors to reinforce hope. With ageing, now the big question is how will we live longer? So, the big question is how technology can help human beings live longer, Pai said.

Talking of futuristic robotic surgery, NU Hospitals managing director Dr Prasanna Venkatesh said robotic surgery would be a system where a surgeon sits at a console away from the patient on the operation table and when he moves the joystick the instruments in the body of the patient moves. This helps in precision for the surgery.

It is the future as robotics will be used for complex procedures. For patients, robotic surgery means lesser pain, no scars and early recovery. We are introducing robotic surgery so that we can do more complex surgeries in minimally invasive techniques,” he said.