It's an alternative way of using robotic telesurgeryJakarta (ANTARA) - At least 80 surgeons from Dr. Hasan Sadikin Central General Hospital (RSUP) in Bandung and Dr. Sardjito RSUP in Yogyakarta underwent training in robotic telesurgery recently.
"At Hasan Sadikin Hospital, there are 40 doctors who have been trained. Some of them finished participating in the training in March 2022," a robotic surgeon at Dr. Hasan Sadikin RSUP, Reno Rudiman, informed during an interview via Zoom on Thursday.
The participating surgeons were trained using the Sina Robotic Surgery Simulator, he said.
The training in Indonesia involved speakers from the Sina Robotic Surgery Simulator manufacturing country, Iran.
Doctors were trained in performing 14 simulator tasks to hone their operating skills using visuals from the Virtual Reality (VR) Robotic Telesurgery Simulator.
According to Rudiman, Sina uses a 5-mm instrument, allowing the machine to move more flexibly so as to minimize wounds during surgery.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister's special staff for the resilience of the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, Prof. Laksono Trisnantoro, said that the use of robotics in surgical practice is among the efforts taken to ensure uniformity in the provision of health services in remote areas.
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Artificial intelligence (AI), which is now being expanded to the health sector, has opened up opportunities for telesurgery services to be applied in Indonesia, Trisnantoro added.
Telesurgery allows surgeons to serve patients from afar, even from different islands, countries, or continents, he highlighted.
"It's an alternative way of using robotic telesurgery. Doctors are in Surabaya or Bandung, then the patients are in Indramayu (or) in Kalimantan or other areas. With the support of information technology, (surgeons) are expected to be able to operate robotic (telesurgery)," he said.
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The development of robotic telesurgery in Indonesia is a multi-year project, which is aimed at improving access and the quality of health services in unreachable regions, he informed.
He said the facility started with the initiation of business matching at the Health Business Forum, where a multi-year and multi-stakeholder Robotic Telesurgery project design for 2021–2024 was developed.
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Translator: Andi F, Kenzu T
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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