Researchers from three California-based institutions are seeking patent protection for systems, devices and methods that allow brain-controlled limb movement and sensation.
Robocath SAS said it performed the world’s first-in-human remote robotic coronary angioplasty between two cities in China, Beijing and Urumqi, located 1,700 miles apart. The procedure was carried out using the company’s R-One robotic platform, via a 5G connection, and paves the way for long-distance endovascular procedures.
Stanford University researchers are seeking patent protection for a medical device for performing endovascular surgical procedures, such as thrombectomy, rotablation, drug delivery and treating brain aneurysms. The device includes a magnetically actuated untethered rotation device, i.e., a magnetic spinner, that can navigate in blood vessels through its spinning-enabled propulsion.
Microsure BV recently secured €38 million (US$40 million) in a series B2 funding round that will allow it to finalize the development of its microsurgical robot, the Musa-3. The robot system is designed to give microsurgeons the precision, stability and control that are currently beyond human capabilities. “We want to make a super microsurgeon from every microsurgeon,” Sjaak Deckers, CEO of Microsure, told BioWorld.
CMR Surgical Ltd. raised $165 million in financing from its existing investors that will allow the company to continue to innovate its portable robotic surgery system, Versius, and grow its position in existing and new markets. The latest financing takes CMR’s total capital raised since its founding to over $1 billion. The Versius surgical robotic system is now in over 20 markets and the company has become the second largest soft tissue surgical robotics company globally, after Intuitive Surgical Inc.
Researchers have created an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled implantable bio-sensing device that can change shape and adapt to maintain drug treatment and bypass scar tissue build up. As the foreign body response continues to impact the longevity of implantable medical devices that treat many conditions, the researchers hope that the Fibrosensing Dynamic Soft Reservoir (FSDSR), capable of monitoring fibrotic capsule formation and overcoming its effects via soft robotic actuations, can change the way patients body respond to therapeutic treatments.
Levita Magnetics International Corp. received uplifting news this week as the U.S. FDA cleared its magnetic-Assisted Robotic Surgery (MARS) minimally invasive surgical platform. MARS builds on the company’s first product, the Levita magnetic surgical system, by providing greater control of surgical instruments to surgeons. The platform is cleared for use in bariatric, colorectal, gallbladder and prostate surgeries.
Neura Robotics GmbH closed a $55 million funding round that will allow the company to expand its operation into the U.S. and Japan and increase its production infrastructure in Germany amid growing demand. The company, which builds cognitive robots, has an order book which exceeds $450 million.
To date the use of robots in nursing has been limited to getting them to fetch and carry supplies, take samples to the lab, remotely measure temperatures, or maybe provide social stimulation. Now in Laakso Hospital, Helskini, Finland, a robot is getting hands on to patients on a stroke ward, in a three-month pilot designed to assess which of 350 tasks in a nurse’s job description it is best suited to perform.
