As promised I’m continuing to get deeper into what I think will be part of the future of surgery over the next decade. Let me recap my own personal history in this space to give context.
In 2007 I laid down a series of patents in an emerging filed that was know as NOTES (Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery) and NOS (Natural Orifice Surgery.)
Both are similar in the fact you avoid cutting the skin - and you go into the body either transoral or transanal. In NOS you stay inside the lumen of the body and operate internally. In NOTES you puncture the lumen and head off out into the abdomen or chest and operate like “laparoscopy.”
Back in the day, myself, Brad Sharp and Wayne Noda created a company called MINOS medical (Minimally Invasive Natural Orifice Surgery - proud of that one.) And we set upon a few novel treatments by wanting to bring similarities to cardiology to the bowel. Endolumenal interventions using long catheters, overtubes and long flexible endoscopes. Rapid exchange was a big part of the concept.