for much longer. Several compact platforms in development offer
the benefits of robotic-assisted surgery at a fraction of the da
Vinci's million-dollar price tag. Robotic arms are also making joint
replacement more precise and spine surgery safer.
Assuming that only health systems with bottomless budgets have
the means to purchase robots will have you playing catch-up to facili-
ties with the foresight to realize that robotic assistance is evolving
from supposed marketing gimmick to outpatient surgery mainstay.
End of a monopoly
In October 2017, TransEnterix received FDA approval for the
Senhance Surgical Robot System, which was designed as a direct
competitor of the da Vinci. The Senhance has one less arm than the
da Vinci system and is comprised of 3 separate units that nurses need
to wheel up to the bedside. But as far as operation — during which
the surgeon sits away from the patient in a console where he controls
the surgical instrumentation using joysticks and foot pedals — the 2
robots are virtually the same.
Cost is where the similarities end. TransEnterix wants to enter the
market at a lower price point than the da Vinci, says Chris
Schabowsky, PhD, the program manager in applied solutions at ECRI
Institute, an independent healthcare research firm in Plymouth
Meeting, Pa. He says the company plans to offer a less expensive
robot by outfitting the platform with detachable instrument arms that
can be sterilized hundreds of times. (Intuitive Medical, maker of the
da Vinci, mandates its robots' arms can be used only 10 times before
being switched out for new ones.) By not capping the number of uses
for their instruments, TransEnterix lowers the platform's per-proce-
dure cost. "You can sterilize the instruments hundreds of times as if
they are traditional laparoscopic tools," says Dr. Schabowsky.
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