UK’s First Live Robotic Prostatectomy

VideoCentric and Cisco Assist Windsor Urology in UK’s first live Robotic Prostatectomy

Tomorrow sees the UK’s first ever live webcast of Robotic Prostatectomy, a minimally invasive surgery to treat men diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.

Using Cisco telepresence technology, VideoCentric have installed systems at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospital Urology Department to enable the Da Vinci Prostatectomy – a minimally invasive, robotic assisted surgical procedure that removes the cancerous prostate gland – to be streamed live to surgeons and the public around the world.

The Operating theatre consists of a Cisco Clinical Assistant – a high definition Mobile Telemedicine system based on a C series codec – with an integrated HD room camera, connected to the Da Vinci SI Robot. The robot is to be controlled by surgeon Omer Karim, one of the first and most experienced robotic surgeons in the UK, and specialist in diseases of the prostate and kidney. Consultant Urological Robotic Surgeon Amrith Rao will assist Mr Karim throughout the procedure.

A separate room will also consist of three highly experienced Consultant Urologists who can be emailed, directly messaged on (@iRoboticSurgery) or contacted via twitter (#dvp2012) for the public to ask any related questions or to comment. This room will be directly linked to the theatre via a Cisco EX90 telepresence system, and both rooms will be transmitted to a Cisco TelePresence Content Server, to enable recording and streaming of the surgery.

The NHS Hospital has recently become recognised as one of the leading centres in the UK for robotic assisted surgery, after hosting a series of workshops, assisted by VideoCentric and Cisco, for visiting experts and surgeons from across the globe, where demonstrations of the Da Vinci SI Robot were streamed via live link-up from the operating theatres to the post graduate medical centre at the hospital.

“The last demonstrations in February were unbelievable. The quality shown was outstanding, and the audience were amazed. Tomorrow we are going one step further – taking the cutting edge robotic healthcare technology and collaborating with the best in communications technology. Between VideoCentric, Cisco, Windsor Urology and Heatherwood & Wexham NHS Hospital, we are delivering the future of healthcare around the globe.”

Visit www.roboticsurgery.org.uk to watch the Live Robotic Prostatectomy Webcast tomorrow, Tuesday March 27th from 9:15am to 12:15pm BST