A surgeon in Florida performed a robotic prostatectomy on a patient in Angola, marking a milestone in an FDA-approved remote surgery clinical trial.
The medical director of the Global Robotics Institute at AdventHealth, Dr. Vip Patel said, “We will operate from the United States to Africa in an FDA-approved clinical trial. We’ll be performing a robotic prostatectomy for a man in Angola who otherwise would not have access to high-end surgical care.”
The patient, an Angolan man named Da Silva was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March. He was selected as the first patient for a human clinical trial.
The robotic system is connected to multiple locations around the world, including Sao Paulo, Kuwait, Morocco, Shanghai, and Angola, allowing for the potential to provide medical care globally from a single location.
“Yeah, people have operated at a distance before and telesurgery is becoming more and more common, but it’s never been done in this way, at this distance. Never from the United States to Africa and never where it’s been approved by a legal agency like the FDA,” said said Dr. Vip Patel.
The procedure performed at AdventHealth Global Robotics Institute could significantly impact global healthcare by providing advanced surgical options to patients in underserved regions that would otherwise lack access to advanced medical care.
Africanews/Kamila