One of the strengths of healthcare / surgical robotics may also slow its growth.
Over focusing on the fact that robotics can do repeatable tasks that humans can do with better performance and more predictability, may limit the near-term development of robotics in healthcare.
Why not go beyond mimicking what humans can do?
What if there are better ways that yield improved outcomes that have very little to do with how humans move or cannot move?
Surgical procedures and devices have evolved around the limits of human movement and mental processing.
Historically, surgery has been based on “what we can see” and “what we can reach”.
The emerging market of apps, imaging, navigation & robotics are able to go far beyond human capabilities.
In general, the FDA is also influenced by the value and efficacy of new devices and solutions in a similar fashion.
Breaking through market forces, current standards of care, clinical trial design, reimbursement, and balancing patient safety with radical innovation will require courage from all of the stakeholders.
