Today, the "Toumai" endoscopic surgical robot independently developed by Shanghai Minimally Invasive Medical Robot (Group) Co., Ltd. has been approved for listing by the State Drug Administration, becoming the only four-arm endoscopic surgical robot developed by Chinese enterprises and approved for listing. Four-arm endoscopic surgical robot is the highest technical standard of endoscopic surgical robot, which is of great significance to improving the clinical application level of robot surgery in mainland China.
Dr. He Chao, President of Minimally Invasive Robot, introduced that the endoscopic surgical robot ranks first among the high-end medical devices focused on the development of the national "14th Five-Year Plan", and only one foreign product in the world has been invested in large-scale clinical applications. Since 2000, the global market for endoscopic surgical robots has been monopolized by foreign brands for a long time, and the high equipment procurement and surgical consumables costs have limited the large-scale clinical application of robotic surgery. Nowadays, the listing of "Tumai" can reduce the cost of robot surgery in mainland China, reduce the economic burden and medical expenditure of patients, and is expected to achieve the rapid development and popularization of robot surgery in mainland China.
As one of the first industrialization teams engaged in surgical robot technology research in China, minimally invasive robots began to move towards the high ground of science and technology of endoscopic surgical robots in 2014. The company lasted 8 years and overcome many technical bottlenecks such as high-dexterity surgical robotic arm configuration synthesis, multi-degree-of-freedom filament transmission micro-instruments, high-definition electronic endoscopic stereoscopic imaging, and master-slave remote operation bilateral control algorithms. The R&D team also continues to march towards the underlying technologies such as chips, optical lenses, ultra-fine signals, and underlying algorithms, and builds a low-level technical system for the whole chain of surgical robots, laying the foundation for the comprehensive development of domestic surgical robots.
Compared with traditional endoscopic surgery, "Tumai" robot has many technical advantages such as three-dimensional reality of surgical field, fine control of micro-instruments, and high dexterous movement in narrow space, which brings important clinical value to surgical operations such as separation and hemostasis, suture knotting, and functional reconstruction under the narrow anatomical space involved in complex endoscopic surgery, and overcomes the problems of traditional open surgery such as large trauma, bleeding and high probability of complications, and can achieve accurate, safe, efficient and micro-traumatized surgical operations.
In the pre-marketing clinical trial, through the large sample size and multi-center clinical trial of head-to-head random control with foreign products, the good safety and efficacy of "Tumai" were verified. It also constantly challenges difficult surgeries, assisting clinical experts to achieve a series of breakthroughs in domestic surgical robots - the first radical prostate cancer resection, the first partial renal resection, the first retroperitoneal approach partial renal resection, the first national single hole surgery... Continuously verify the technical strength of endoscopic surgical robots to complete complex operations in a narrow anatomical space and broaden the field of clinical applications.
After the launch of this product, minimally invasive robots will help the popularization and sinking of high-quality medical resources through various clinical education training and services. The company has built a "robot surgery center" with a number of hospitals, and will continue to provide one-stop services such as technical training, customer service, clinical support, etc., and promote the sinking of robot doctor training resources and narrow geographical differences in medical treatment through robot surgery teaching demonstration models such as mobile training display platforms. "As an innovative enterprise integrating the research and development, production, manufacturing, marketing and service of surgical robots, we must promote the robot technology of 'Made in China' to cities at all levels across the country, so that the Chinese people can truly benefit." Sun Hongbin, chairman of MicroPort Robotics, said.