An Indian surgeon performs the first ever remote heart surgery

The sensational event would not have occurred but for the robot-surgeon CorPath GRX. The device was operated by Dr. Tejas Patel from the Institute of Cardiology in Ahmadabad 35 km away from the operating room.

Putting a stent in a patient's heart vessels is a complex operation that requires well-coordinated work by a team of doctors highly concentrating on the surgery. Who would have thought it could be done remotely?

CorPath GRX is a robot surgeon who has been tested by Indian researchers for a long time. In previous experiments, the doctor-operator was in close proximity to the operating room, but the operation was recently carried out remotely, at a distance of 35 km.

The surgery was controlled from a special point connected to the device via high-speed Internet and the images were transmitted to the leading surgeon via a number of cameras installed in the hospital.

It goes without saying that, to ensure the patient’s safety, an additional team of doctors was at hand in the operating room.  But their assistance was not required as the stent was installed remotely.