Winchester Medical Center, part of Valley Health’s regional chain of healthcare, is home to numerous different robotic technologies, ranging from assistants who roll through the halls to complex mechanical arms that aim to alleviate surgical trauma.
For an institution of its size — classified as “a large Level II Trauma Center” — WMC has “a lot of robots,” according to Vice President of Operations and Clinical Services Kevin Sheppard.
“What it shows is that Valley Health is staying at the crest of the wave in terms of advancements in the medical field,” said surgeon Dr. Devin Flaherty.
Flaherty works with the da Vinci Surgical System most frequently, which is the center’s most prolific form of bot with five total, the first of which arrived in 2016.
The machine is manipulated by a surgeon and is not fully autonomous. Its operator sits in the room alongside the patient bed, conducting the surgery through the da Vinci — which is far more precise and small-scale than the human hand alone, explained Flaherty.
“Everything I do, I control every movement that machine makes,” Flaherty said. “I’m not in the lounge drinking coffee while the robot’s just doing this. It’s surgeon-controlled robotic technology.”
Some patients arrive for consultation hesitant about the technology, but once Flaherty explains the human-operated distinction to wary patients, they tend to be more open to the use of the da Vinci in their own procedure, he said.
With these advancements, incisions are smaller, trauma to the body lessened and recovery time faster, according to WMC anesthesiologist Dr. Howard Green.
“All of those things are so impactful to a patient’s life and to their family,” Green said. “All those things play into that — functionally back to their lives. No one wants to be here in the hospital.”
Flaherty said there will likely never be a future where doctors, nurses and other hospital employees are made fully obsolete by modern technologies.
“No matter how precise and accurate the robot is, you still need somebody who’s going to be able to turn it on and off, get the instruments you need, put the instruments into the robot, take them out, things like that,” Flaherty said.
For surgery specifically, he added that there are too many judgment calls and subjective decisions to be programmed into an objective artificial intelligence.
“It’s the surgeon who knows what has to be done in there, not the machine,” Green said.
The company which designs the da Vinci comes out with newer versions on a regular basis, recently having released its fifth generation, Sheppard said. Upgrades often feature newer technologies, ranging from as complex as a quicker, more painless surgical experience to as simple as having a phone charging port in the arm for the operator.
Like the DaVinci, WMC has automated assistance for spine surgery called the Mazor, one for minimally invasive bronchoscopy called the Ion and another for knee surgery called the Zimmer Rosa, among others.
Outside of tech designed to assist in medical procedures, the pharmacy on the lower level of WMC boasts a robotic medicine organizing and retrieval system, akin to a “giant vending machine.”
Called the Swisslog BoxPicker, it was installed years prior, likely to be upgraded in the near future, Sheppard said. It enables pharmacists to call medicines for specific patients without having to walk through shelving or search through drawers.
The machines experience “hiccups” on occasion, but they are usually small fixes that a company tech support representative can troubleshoot and solve within the day. In addition to purchasing expenses, some parts are due for replacements as well after a certain amount of uses.
Flaherty said it is becoming commonplace for medical students to learn how to operate such robotics, especially when they complete their residency. For those who were not taught in school, WMC conducts training programs occasionally among interested or qualified employees.
“It’s a slow but eventual paradigm shift in the way you teach and train and work,” Flaherty said.
