ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — A surgeon at a healthcare conference in Islamabad has operated a robot remotely to remove a patient’s gallbladder at a hospital in the city, in what Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University describes as Pakistan’s first robotic telesurgery.
Prof Dr Syed Tanseer Asghar, the university’s registrar and a robotic surgeon, worked the console from the International Conference on Future of Healthcare at the Gandhara Heritage and Culture Centre, while the patient was at Kulsum International Hospital. Dr Sana Sharafat Ali, a consultant robotic and vascular surgeon, stayed at the patient’s side and managed the robotic cart with a surgical team on site, according to the university’s press release.
The university says telesurgery could bring specialist surgery to remote areas, provided the infrastructure, clinical safeguards and regulations are in place. This was a demonstration within one city with surgeons at the bedside, and it is not yet routine practice.
Available accounts do not give the patient’s condition, the distance involved or the robotic system used. The university says its vice chancellor, Prof Dr Tanwir Khaliq, has also secured approval for its first Robotic Surgery and Artificial Intelligence Health Centre.
