Monthly Archives: March 2024

MANEL BALCELLS, MINISTER OF HEALTH, ATTENDS A SURGERY PERFORMED WITH THE SURGICAL ROBOT OF THE CATALAN COMPANY ROB SURGICAL

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Isabel Vilaseca, Director of Surgery at the Barcelona Hospital Clinic; Manel Balcells, Very Honorable Minister of Health, and Jaume Amat, CEO Rob Surgical.
  • The Minister of Health, who was able to meet Bitrack at 4YFN24, wanted to see first-hand and live the benefits that this open platform can offer to the Catalan health system.
  • The versatility and flexibility of the Rob Surgical platform will make it possible to universalize high-precision surgery and bring its benefits to patients, surgeons and hospitals around the world.
  • Rob Surgical, founded 12 years ago in Barcelona as a spin-off from the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona (UPC) and the Bioengineering Institute of Catalonia (IBEC), is still in the final stretch of the certification process.

The Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, attended a surgery carried out with Bitrack, Rob Surgical’s open and flexible platform. The Councilor was able to see the surgical robot in action, designed and manufactured in Catalonia, which grabbed all the attention at 4YFN last week.

The surgery took place at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, where Rob Surgical is carrying out the clinical trials with the aim of certifying the Bitrack platform and starting its commercialization throughout Europe at the end of this 2024. Councilor Balcells has attended a radical prostatectomy performed by Dr. Lluís Peri and Dr. Mireia Musquera, from the Urology Service of the Hospital Clínic, led by Dr. Antonio Alcaraz.

Jaume Amat, CEO Rob Surgical; Manel Balcells, Very Honorable Minister of Health; Lluís Perí and Mireia Musquera, surgeons at the Urology Service at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
Jaume Amat, CEO Rob Surgical; Manel Balcells, Very Honorable Minister of Health; Lluís Perí and Mireia Musquera, surgeons at the Urology Service at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.

Rob Surgical’s robotic platform is the first to offer the possibility of performing hybrid surgery with 4 robotic arms on an open platform. This platform offers the surgeon a tool that allows more precise and safer surgeries in order to protect the patient and improve his recovery.

The platform allows for a hybrid approach, where the surgeon can alternate manual instruments and robotic instruments and choose at what point in the surgical procedure he needs to incorporate robotic precision. Finally, being an open platform makes it possible to remove entry barriers and make it more permeable to a group of hospitals that currently do not have access to high-precision robotic surgery.

The Bitrack platform does not require dedicated operating rooms, reduces the number of people involved and reduces the training process for surgeons. All this thanks to hybrid surgery, which allows alternating manual maneuvers and precision surgery. This fact, combined with the ease of mobility that the platform offers, paves the way for the universalization of high-precision surgery.

The 4YFN-MWC was the stage to present the latest Bitrack innovation: the sensory return, the last sense to be incorporated into the robot. Sensory feedback makes it possible to generate virtual barriers and thus protect critical structures in order to improve the precision and safety of surgical processes.