Surgeons are the biggest factor in any effort to streamline and standardize the purchase of new surgical devices—and thereby lower costs. But surgeons often balk at getting involved in product review and selection because of the additional demands on their time. Two leading healthcare organizations have moved past this stumbling…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 28 issued a Safety Communication on the safety and effectiveness of using robotically-assisted surgical devices in mastectomy procedures or in the prevention or treatment of cancer in women. The FDA cited limited, preliminary evidence that the use of robotically-assisted surgical…

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Editor's Note The Healthcare Quarterly report by Moody’s Investors Service shows the orthopedics and spine sectors increasingly performing robotic-assisted procedures, the January 18 Becker’s Spine Review reports. This is resulting in strong growth for device firms with major investments in these specialties, particularly Medtronic with its Mazor robotics platform for…

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Editor's Note The first 360-degree virtual reality (VR) accredited continuing medical education course in gastro-intestinal (GI) surgery was filmed at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, and is now available for streaming, Cedars-Sinai announced on December 3. The course is a collaboration between Cedars-Sinai and the streaming medical platform GIBLIB. The content closely…

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As hospital administrators face shrinking operating margins, OR leaders are being called upon to create innovative approaches for boosting revenue. Adding a new service line is one option, but it carries both risks and rewards. Only by careful analysis and follow-through can OR leaders hope to tip the balance to…

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Editor's Note Automated performance metrics can distinguish surgeon expertise during anastomoses and create an objective, standardized way to train new surgeons, this study finds. Researchers used a data recorder plugged into a robotic surgery system to evaluate expert and novice surgeons’ movements for 70 vesicourethral anastomoses (total of 1,745 stitches)…

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Editor's Note A deal has been signed by Olympus with FlexDex Surgical to distribute its wrist-controlled Needle Driver robotic device, the August 23 Medical Design & Outsourcing reports. The FlexDex Needle Driver, which is used to streamline suturing in areas of the abdomen that are hard to access, will complement…

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Editor's Note Robot-assisted and open cystectomies are equally effective in treating bladder cancer, this 7-year study finds. Conducted at 17 institutions, 350 patients with bladder cancer were randomized to the open (175 patients) or the robot-assisted (175 patients) surgical approach. The researchers found lower blood loss and transfusion rates and…

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Robotic-assisted surgery offers many potential advantages, including shorter operative time, less morbidity, and faster patient recovery. But rigorous comparisons with traditional surgical methods and cost-effectiveness analyses are still limited, and the price tag of the robot (in the neighborhood of $1 million) and annual maintenance contract (roughly $150,000) may give…

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Editor's Note A Meddevicetracker analysis expects the global market for robotically assisted surgical devices to see an 11.7% compound annual growth rate, reaching $5.3 billon by 2021, the November 10 Medtech Insight reports The market is being led by Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci systems, although the analysis predicts more competition…

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