SAN ANTONIO – A new robotic technology that is already helping patients in San Antonio is also inspiring local students to consider working in the field of medicine.
Methodist Healthcare is currently home to the largest multi-specialty robotic surgery program in the United States and Methodist Texsan’s intuitive Da Vinci system is helping with open heart surgery.
The heart surgery is done without having to open the heart – by magnifying the issue times ten – and then using robotic arms to conduct the procedure.
“This is the camera that goes inside. Then you have right arm, left arm, and you have an extra arm that can help,” Dr. Renata Ford, a robotic heart surgeon said.
“You pinch like this and then you can actually move. So he can do things like pass an instrument from one side to the other,” Ford said.
Richard Esquivel, Director of Surgical Services, said robots are currently being used to perform complex surgeries all over the country and that they in fact, can be of great benefit.
“It allows a minimally invasive approach to surgery, allowing for faster recovery times, sending patients home same day, and if not, the very next day,” Esquivel said. “It also helps with surgeon fatigue. Instead of a surgeon holding those instruments for hours on end, trying to perform a surgery, the robot will hold the instruments for them and then just allow for more maneuverability to reach, to dissect out nerves out to prevent. It’s less trauma to the patients’ internally.”
Ford said you can see ten times more with a camera and the robots doing the surgeries are more precise. And the technology also has another added benefit: it’s influencing and inspiring youth in San Antonio.
Health Careers High School students were invited to explore the Da Vinci device and Ford says the robots likely will spark the next generation of medical leaders.
“The newer generations I think, they get very excited with the technology. So I think that’s very interesting to get them from that point on, because sometimes they don’t even know, they think old medicine is boring and all. But there’s a lot of exciting things,” Ford said.