With the robotic surgeries becoming order of the day, healthcare experts are of the view that this new and most advanced trend of medical treatment will be further consolidated with more and more hospitals in the country opting for it in the near future.
Particularly, some of the super speciality hospitals in Hyderabad have been in the forefront in adopting the new trend of robotic surgeries. According to Dr. Bhaskar Rao, managing director of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), “Robotics in medicine is fast catching up as it offers most effective, reliable, infection free and fast recovery options. In fact the use of medical robots will increase the quality of medical treatment. Utilization of telepresence in the medical operations has eliminated the barriers of distance, due to which professional expertise is readily available. Use of robotics in the medical field and telepresence minimize individual oversight and brings specialized knowledge to inaccessible regions without the need of physical travel.”
According to experts, though the robotic surgeries began on a small note in the country, this trend is going take over the healthcare industry to the next level in the coming year 2018. With the introduction of robotics in the medical field more and more hospitals are looking at not only installing most advanced robotic surgery equipments, but also increasingly inducting trained robotic surgeons with expertise. “Installing robotics is definitely a big cost cutting for the hospitals. It will not only help in effectively conducting the surgery but most importantly it will be error free and helps the patient recover faster,” observed a Senior Robotic Surgeon from Care Hospital.
In the year 2017, an estimated 50 surgical robots are installed and employed about 300 well trained robotic surgeons across various hospitals in the country. However, this trend is estimated to go up by 200 surgical robots and 20000 robotic surgeons in the next two years by 2020.
In India, the first robotic surgery was conducted in the year 2013 and since then robotic surgeries were conducted in urology, gynaecology, cancer, thoracic and colo-rectal cancers. The current year 2017 had seen a major boost in robotic medical treatment as this technology has been widely accepted across the medical realm. Surgeons are now working on niche areas like renal transplants and abdominal tumours. “There is an immense scope of use of robotics in paediatric and general surgeries; however the major challenge faced by the hospitals is availability of well trained robotic surgeons. It can be overcome by training more and more doctors as robotic surgeons,” observed another senior doctor from Apollo.