Faced with the challenge “how can we ensure that a greater number of patients benefit from robotic surgery?”, we have found the answer: by quickly and agilely transferring the Bitrack surgical robot. Its characteristics give it the ability to change operating rooms when it is no longer needed and start working on a new intervention in the same center or even in another hospital.

The open platform, disposable instruments, easy and quick docking, hybrid surgery… The Bitrack surgical robot is designed to improve the efficiency of current minimally invasive surgery. It has been manufactured thinking about benefiting patients and hospitals, but also all the medical staff present in the operating room: surgeons, nurses, assistants…

The design of the Bitrack system and its features allow professionals to carry out their work more agilely, easily and quickly. In the following video, we see how hybrid surgery and the ease of transport of the surgical robot make it possible for the robot to leave the operating room while the surgeon finishes the sutures after the intervention.

The Bitrack robot is very compact and manageable. Its small size makes it ideal for any type of hospital, with easy access through all doors and elevators.

The result of these advantages is clear: the time and cost per surgery is lower, the different operating room professionals can work comfortably and the robot can be easily transported to other areas of the hospital or even to other centers.

The Bitrack System surgical robot bases its value proposition on three pillars: high precision and safety that benefits the patient, superior usability for the surgeon and reduction of surgical costs for the hospital. This project was born more than 10 years ago, with an idea that arose at a meeting at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital. Dr. Josep Amat, Chief Scientific Officer of Rob Surgical, was present at that meeting.

Josep Amat is a Doctor in Industrial Engineering and emeritus professor of Architecture and Computer Science at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He is an advisor to the CREB-UPC Robotics and Vision Group. From 1991 to 2006 he was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies and the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona. He currently focuses his research on robotic surgery and the development of the Bitrack System surgical robot.

From the first concept, Dr. Amat’s desire has been to improve current robotic surgery and make it available to as many beneficiaries as possible: “Rob Surgical improves current robotics and offers a flexible and versatile open platform formed by a four-arm column that allow controlling the movements of surgical instruments with submillimeter precision. The Rob Surgical system improves the efficiency of current surgical robotics, allowing high-precision surgery to be universalized,” explains Dr. Josep Amat.

Reducing the cost per operation is one of the challenges that Rob Surgical had to face, allowing more medical centers and hospitals to offer the robotic surgery service: “Bitrack offers a significant reduction in the total cost per surgery that benefits hospitals, since It does not require a dedicated operating room, it requires less staff and supports hybrid surgeries”.

The cost reduction has been possible thanks to many factors, such as its design and ease of transport, which allows the same surgical robot to operate in different hospitals, compatibility with the instruments that the hospital already has and hybrid surgery, which reduces the time and cost of each intervention. “The differentiating factor of Rob Surgical lies in the possibility of performing hybrid surgeries, alternating manual maneuvers and high-precision maneuvers assisted by the robot” explains Dr. Amat.

In short, Dr. Josep Amat defines the Rob Surgical robot as engineering at the service of surgeons: “Its ergonomics and usability allow the surgeon to make the most of their medical skills, with the extreme precision of a robotic system. “Hybrid surgery allows us to put the patient and the surgeon’s needs back at the center of the surgical procedure”.

The technical advantages of the Bitrack System surgical robot are many and make a difference, but at Rob Surgical we know that not only the characteristics of the robot are important, it is also essential to know the sensations of the technology in expert hands, such as those of surgeons.

For this reason, we exchanged impressions with the medical team to find out how they feel operating with the Bitrack robot.

Dr. Mireia Musquera was part of the team that performed the first operations of the Bitrack System surgical robot with real patients, together with Dr. Lluís Peri and under the direction of Dr. Alcaraz. She is a Urologist at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and a specialist in minimally invasive surgery, kidney transplant and urology.

After the interventions with the Bitrack robot, Dr. Musquera highlights the benefits of minimally invasive surgery, with better results in terms of aesthetics and comorbidity: “Working with Bitrack improves the quality of surgeries, improves vision, improves movements and also the magnification. All this contributes to making surgery much more precise.”

Some of the aspects most valued by the Urologist at the Clínic were the proximity to the patient, the extreme precision, the comfort of the work space, the ease of learning… but she especially highlighted the experience of working with 3D vision: “Three-dimensional vision dimensions during the laparoscopic operation and the robot-assisted operation provides better visualization of the field.” She even equated it to the vision of open surgery: “It is as if you were performing open surgery, seeing the structures and depth much better.”

At Rob Surgical we work together with the medical team to put technology at their service, with tools that improve their work and magnify their surgical skills.