University of Iowa Health Care added three new surgical robots, expanding robotic surgery capacity by an estimated one thousand operations per year and effectively doubling the current capacity.
UIHC began using the robots on June 2. The model, da Vinci 5, is a robotic surgical system that allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures with high precision. The system sports tiny robotic instruments that follow a surgeon’s hand movements in real time.
Paired with a 3D simulated view of the incision area, surgeons are able to perform less invasive, smaller cuts than traditional open surgery.
Open surgery calls for larger cuts to allow surgeons to reach and work on organs with their own hands.
UIHC purchased three of the da Vinci 5 units over the summer from Intuitive Surgical, adding to the three da Vinci Xi models UIHC had been operating with since 2015.
Intuitive Surgical, based in Sunnyvale, California, specializes in creating robots that help doctors perform surgery with more precision.
UIHC has not released how much the da Vinci models cost, but cases like that of Memorial Hospital in Wyoming’s $2.5 million purchase of a da Vinci Xi model in 2023 show the robot is no small investment.
According to UIHC spokesperson Laura Shoemaker, UIHC did not pay any upfront costs for the three da Vinci 5s, citing an agreement allowing the surgical robots to be paid per procedure rather than an outright purchase.
Daniel Yunek, clinical practice leader of robotic surgery at the UI, said the robots have a healthy return on investment due to the smaller incisions.
“If we are able to perform an open procedure, [the patient] would have to stay in the hospital for five to seven days. If you do it with the robot, the patient leaves in two days. In theory, we could potentially take care of three times as many patients,” he said.
Smaller cuts lead to faster healing times and more surgical availability.
The new da Vinci 5 offers a new bag of tools for surgeons on top of expanding robotic surgery operations, including advanced analytics, greater surgical precision and control, and force-sensing technology, otherwise known as haptic feedback.
The latter addition is the most appreciated by UIHC cardiothoracic surgeon John Keech said.
“I think that there is some resistance among some surgeons to adopt robotics because they do not have that ability to feel the tissues,” he said. “[Haptic feedback] definitely adds an element of realism that we previously had when we do regular open surgeries without a robot, where you can feel tissues, you can feel tension.”
Advancements such as these only smake surgeons more comfortable performing with the robots, Keech said.
He said in his field, thoracic surgery, about half of the minimally invasive procedures have been performed with robotics in recent years.
At the core of the da Vinci and other similar robotic systems is feedback from surgeons, helping Intuitive Surgical to improve the robot’s design from model to model. Keech said the medical field is currently navigating how the use of robots will impact the industry, such as if surgical robots will soon be advanced enough to not require a human operator.
“There’s a very existential question that we’re all obviously dealing with here now, with AI and the advances going on in robotics,” Keech said. “I think, for the foreseeable future, it’s still a surgeon controlling the robot at every step of the way.”
Yunek is most excited about the robot’s new analytical system.
“Da Vinci 5 will capture [surgeons’] data from their most recent case, and then it’ll provide an analysis of their movement and their efficiency, and then that’ll go out to that resident, and then they can review that with their surgeon, and it’ll actually push out some recommended exercises to do,” Yunek said.
The new and improved analytical system compares a surgeon’s skill to the top 10 percent of da Vinci users, allowing them to tune their weak points and someday match the best of the best.
In a press release, David Bender, director of robotic surgery at UIHC, said he is excited to see the new robots cover a wider range of procedures.
“We have surgeons across a number of specialties who are eager to have access to this technology,” he wrote. “Now that we have six robotic-assisted systems under one roof, we’ll be able to provide patients with new types of procedures we weren’t able to provide before.”