Surgical robots are gaining widespread acceptance globally as they enhance surgeons’ abilities in terms of surgical imaging, navigation, planning, and instrument manipulation, says a Frost & Sullivan report, Innovations in Medical Robotics.
‘Market participants’ are conducting extensive research ‘to further strengthen the capabilities of surgeons through advanced imaging techniques, higher degrees of freedom, interactive interfaces, haptics feedback, and teleoperation’, while manufacturers are striving to reduce systems’ footprint, and ‘lessen surgical invasiveness’, by advancing single port, natural orifice, and swarm robotic technologies.
Frost & Sullivan’s analysis says the global surgical robotics market is ‘top-heavy’; the leading participants possess ‘cutting-edge technologies’ and ‘large patent libraries’. There is also, however, ‘an abundance of smaller participants’ working on innovations.
Despite the long time-to-market caused by stringent regulatory requirements, complex manufacturing processes, and extensive R&D, the technology is ‘making its way into practically every major surgical discipline’. Global demand is apparently ‘particularly high’ for prostatectomy and hysterectomy surgery, as here surgical robot systems are ‘believed to offer greater safety, accuracy, and precision, leading to better clinical outcomes for surgeon, patient, and hospital management’.
