Before heading out to the HQ of Virtual Incision - in Lincoln Nebraska. I asked myself “what are your thoughts on the system?”
But I also asked many of you to tell me your thoughts on their system: and well it was a mixed bag…
“It’s single port so has no future…”
“It’s interesting. But why?”
“Like a daVinci SP but with only two arms.”
“Arms are too small. Too weak to do real surgery.”
“That's a big incision - that is a massive hole in the umbilicus. No one is going to use it.”
“I don’t get it?”
“Is that the same as Vicarious Surgical?”
Etc etc.
Now I’ll fess up. I too have been very sceptical. And I know this space, and I have even sat on the system and played with it at SRS 2024. And I was embarking on my long trip to Lincoln Nebraska (BF Nowhere… right? Hold that thought…) with a little more than scepticism. But "The fact" my long term colleague Kin Cheung (probably one of the most knowledgable people in the world of surgical robotics) was insisting that “it’s way more than you think…” had me curious and willing to winkle myself out of home for a trip half way around the world.
Note: I just can’t help myself. I’m too geeky and nerdy to not go and see inside the robots.
Now (after the trip) as someone that also knows this space, and has sat on nearly every robot that exists. My conclusion is: “It’s way more than you think.”
So let me explain "why" in my extended field report.