PRIVATE tertiary care hospital The Medical City launched on Friday its latest robotics surgery equipment as it gears up towards the automation of medical procedures, which is seen prospering further in the next five to 10 years.
According to TMC Robotics Surgery Program (TMC) Head Dr. Julius Cajucom, technological advancements allow individuals to opt for a less traumatic approach to their healthcare.
With the availability of robotics surgery, he said that patients easily avoid all the complications brought about by most operations.
While it has been embraced in most developed nations globally, the urologist noted that most of the doctors are aware of this technology, yet its cost is so expensive that it took a while before Third World countries like the Philippines could catch up.
At present, robotics surgery is as costly as laparoscopic procedure, admitted Dr. Manuel Francisco Roxas of TMC.
He cited that for a rectal cancer operation, the traditional open surgery is already a bit pricey from P200,000 to P350,000 because it also uses instruments for laparoscopic to reconnect the bowel of the patient.
If the operation is done laparoscopically, another P100,000 to P150,000 could be added for the machines.
“And robotics is about the same as laparoscopic,” Dr. Roxas said, while reiterating that both are more cost-effective in the long run.
“When you open a patient using the basics in any government hospital, that’s the cheapest. But if the wound develops a complication, long term, then the cost also goes up. So we have to look at overall. How soon can you return to work? So if you look at all of that, minimally invasive surgery [like laparoscopic and robotics surgery] actually has an advantage over open [procedure].”
Bullish of the future growth potential of robotics surgery in the country, Dr. Cajucom said that “time will come and probably all these robots from the other makers are already in the market.”
“Just like laparoscopic surgery, initially, they thought this is not gonna pick up in the Philippines because it’s so expensive. But where are we now? Almost all hospitals have their own laparoscopic or even small hospitals have their own,” he recalls.
“Now, the same is to robotics surgery. Probably in the next five to 10 years, the price will be competitive already—the same as the other treatment options. And who knows? Patients may not want to be subjected under a knife along the incision, but through other less invasive procedure like robotics surgery,” he said.
Globally, Intuitive’s Da Vinci robots are the most widely used technology of its kind, with the United States, where it originated, at the No. 1 spot of its installation map, followed by Europe and Asia, cited the TMC Robotics Surgery Program head.
In the latter continent, he noted that Japan has the most number at about 183 robots, followed by South Korea with 46 robots.
“And where are we, the Philippines? We only have three robots, including the second robot that we have acquired,” he said of the gap as compared to other countries in the region.
As a pioneer for robotics surgery, TMC has been offering this since 2010 for procedures that target difficult and hard-to-reach areas.
Patients who undergo this kind of procedure can leave the hospital in just a day or two because it has “less pain, stress and even agony.”
“So the reason why we embrace this technology is not because of the demand, but it’s because of the advantages for the patients and the surgeons given the convenience of doing a procedure using this technology,” Dr. Cajucom explained.
The hospital was the first to do robotics prostatectomy, gynecologic, colorectal, and radical cystectomy in the country.
“These are just a few of the milestones we have as the pioneer in the field of robotics surgery,” he boasted.
In case of their section—the Department of Urology—he bared that they already have done more than 100 over the last six years.
Apart from the locals, TMC has been attracting foreign patients coming from the islands like Guam and Palau, he added.
Though the procedure is currently available for urologic, colorectal and gynecological operations, it can also be utilized for head and neck, trans-oral, thoracic and vascular surgeries.
“For those [medical institutions] who have started robotics surgery now, they will be ahead of the competition. So I’m encouraging those who see that this is the future, start investing in it now,” Dr. Cajucom said, while citing that the required investment per unit ranges from $2 million to $2.5 million.