Advancing Robotics in Healthcare | 21 Jan 2025

Source; TH 

Why in News? 

India achieved a significant milestone by performing two complex heart surgeries using the country's first indigenous surgical tele-robotic system, the SSI Mantra, over a physical distance of 286 km.  

• These procedures represent a breakthrough in robotic-assisted surgeries, reducing geographical barriers to advanced healthcare.

What is SSI Mantra?

• About: SSI Mantra is India’s first indigenous surgical robotic system to receive regulatory approval for telesurgery. It is developed by SS Innovations. 
  • It was approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), the central regulatory authority under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940. 
• Key Features: 
  • Ultra-low Latency: Operates at a latency of 35–40 milliseconds, enabling seamless remote operations without delay. 
  • High-precision Surgeries: Designed for procedures like Totally Endoscopic Coronary Artery Bypass (TECAB), one of the most intricate cardiac surgeries. 
  • Regulatory Approval: Recognized as the first robotic system certified for both telesurgery and remote surgical training (tele-proctoring). 
• Working Mechanism: It operates on a Master-Slave Console Model, where: 
  • The Master surgeon console remotely controls the surgery, allowing the lead surgeon to perform precise movements.  
  • While the Slave Console near the patient executes commands with robotic instruments, enabling effective surgical care despite geographical distance. 
• Significance: Facilitates access to expert surgical care in underserved or remote regions with limited medical facilities. 
  • Overcomes geographical barriers, ensuring that world-class surgical expertise is available even in distant locations. 
  • Minimally invasive techniques result in faster recovery times, fewer complications and reduced trauma and Improved overall patient experiences. 

What are the Various Applications of Robots? 

• Health Sector: Robotic Prosthetics where advanced robotic limbs and exoskeletons enhance mobility and functionality for amputees, improving their quality of life. 
  • Robotic Surgery: Minimally invasive procedures, faster recovery, and higher precision. 
  • Medical Service Robots: Robots for tasks like sanitization, patient monitoring, and telemedicine. 
    • Utilize UV-C light or hydrogen peroxide vapor to disinfect healthcare environments, ensuring clean and safe conditions. 
• Industries: Robots are widely used in electronics, automotive, and metal industries, with China being the leader in installations.  
  • In India, around 8,500 robots were installed in 2023, a 59% increase from the previous year. 
• Defense Sector: Robots in warfare can either serve as autonomous killing machines (e.g., Israel’s REX Mark II) or assist soldiers in logistics, mine detection, and surveillance. 
• Agriculture: Agricultural robots help in tasks like crop management, precision farming, and harvesting. In India, the development of robots like Agribot is underway. 
• Disaster Management: Robots are used for search and rescue operations, such as navigating collapsed buildings (e.g., Bandicoot robot for sewer cleaning). 
• Space Sector: Robotic systems are integral for space missions, such as the Pragyan Rover on Chandrayaan-3 and NASA's Mars rovers. 

What are the Challenges in Adopting Robotics in Healthcare? 

• High Initial Costs: Robotic systems like SSI Mantra are expensive to acquire and maintain, posing financial challenges for many healthcare facilities, especially those with limited resources.  
  • The high upfront cost, along with ongoing maintenance and consumables, makes adoption difficult for smaller or rural hospitals, widening healthcare disparities. 
• Training and Skill Gaps: Operating robotic surgery systems requires specialized training for surgeons and medical staff.  The setup time for robotic systems poses challenges in emergency cases like accidents. 
  • The steep learning curve and global shortage of trained professionals delay adoption, particularly in developing countries. 
• Ethical Concerns: Telesurgery raises accountability and patient safety concerns, as errors may blur responsibility between the surgeon, institution, or system provider, while technical issues like connectivity failures could compromise outcomes and trust. 
• Patient Trust: Patients may hesitate to trust remote surgeries, fearing that the absence of a surgeon in the room compromises safety.  
• Job Loss: Automation leads to job displacement, especially in manufacturing, with estimates suggesting that 300 million jobs could be lost due to automation. 
• Cybersecurity Risks: Increased connectivity exposes robots to cyber-attacks, as seen in the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack. 

Way Forward 

• Costs-Effective Robotics: Government support, subsidies and collaboration with private sectors and innovation in cost-effective robotics solutions can make these systems more affordable. 
  • Hospitals can consider leasing options or financing plans to distribute costs over time. 
• Bridging Gaps: Medical schools and training centers should integrate robotic surgery training into their curricula and online platforms and virtual training can be leveraged to provide global access to specialized education. 
• Managing Ethical Concerns: Clear frameworks and regulations need to be established to define accountability in telesurgery, ensuring that all stakeholders (surgeon, hospital, system provider) share responsibilities. 
  • Develop backup systems and fail-safes to minimize the impact of technical failures and ensure continuous patient safety during remote surgeries. 
• Mitigating Job Loss: Upskilling and reskilling programs and promoting human-robot collaboration models where robots handle repetitive tasks while humans focus on decision-making and patient care. 
• Addressing Cybersecurity Risks: Encryption, multi-factor authentication, and regular software updates and collaboration between healthcare institutions and cybersecurity experts will help safeguard robots and medical data from potential cyber threats. 
  • Developing standardized cybersecurity frameworks for robotic systems in healthcare can help mitigate risks and increase system reliability.