Jipmer will set up a centre for multidisciplinary robot- assisted minimal access surgery to extend the service to people at a more affordable cost, Dr. S. C. Parija, Jipmer Director said on Wednesday.
“The multidisciplinary nature would enable more people to have access, reduce the cost of care and also train doctors from diverse disciplines in this important technology,” Dr. Parija said in a statement.
The objectives of the new centre would be to provide high quality robotic surgical service at an affordable cost, education and training surgeons in this field, providing critical evaluation of this technology in newer areas of application through research and facilitating development of indigenous alternatives to available equipment and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the Standing Finance Committee, Jipmer, has approved expenditure of ₹32.67 crore for establishing the centre.
According to Dr. Parija, robotic surgery has an inherent advantage of providing the surgeon stereoscopic vision at the console. The robotic system scales filters and translates the surgeon’s movements into more precise micro-movements of the instruments.
The jointed-wrist design of the robot exceeds the natural range of movement of the human hand. Moreover, motion scaling and tremor reduction further interpret and refine the surgeon’s movements. “All these make the surgical dissection and suturing more precise,” he said.
In India, the first robotic surgery was performed in 2006. Yet, by and large this service remains inaccessible to most people as the facilities are primarily available in corporate hospitals that are beyond the reach of the common man.
There are very few government institutions which offer this service and none in any of the southern states of India.
Way to cut cost
A major reason why robotic surgery in India has not progressed at a faster rate is the financial factor. But there is a large role for government institutions in making this service accessible to a larger number of people. An important method of cost reduction and to make robotic surgery financially feasible is for multidisciplinary utilisation of the robotic system to its fullest potential in a high volume centre, the Jipmer chief felt.
“The maintenance cost remains the same whether one case or six cases are done in a day. So it is logical that if more cases were generated out of a robotic system, the cost per case would automatically decrease,” Dr. Parija said.
The rationale for Jipmer’s foray into this realm included the fact that JIPMER was already performing minimal access procedures, it was a high volume tertiary care referral centre and had the availability of a pool of technically highly skilled surgical specialists in various super specialties with specific expertise in minimal access surgeries.
“With a short period of training to select surgeons this technology can be readily made available to the people at a much more affordable cost than currently available once the equipment is installed,” he said.
Besides, once this service is established the students in the respective disciplines will get trained and will thereby serve the patients in other centres. In the long-term the centre is also expected to facilitate development of indigenous alternatives to available equipment and infrastructure, Dr. Parija said.
