Robots In The Cath Lab -- Is This The Future Of PCI?

Article preview from In-Vivo -October, 2010

Robotic-driven technology has begun to transform surgery, but not without leaving some surgeons unimpressed. Now Corindus is trying to bring robots to the cath lab -- and this time physicians love the technology because it provides an ergonomically better experience and both enhances the procedure and reduces health problems.

Robots In The Cath Lab -- Is This The Future Of PCI?

Article preview from In-Vivo -October, 2010

Once anticipated to revolutionize surgery, robotic systems are coming to the cath lab – and this time, physicians love them.

In many respects, interventional cardiology still represents the best example of a technology-driven revolution in medicine. Still, the procedure itself has changed little over the past three decades.

Corindus is a start-up trying to bring robotic technology to the cath lab, hoping to revolutionize interventional medicine in a way that robots have largely failed to do in surgery.

Corindus' best hope: the benefits of robots accrue not just to patients but to interventionalists themselves. Robot-driven procedures result in less radiation exposure and an ergonomically more comfortable procedure, dramatically reducing the health risks for interventionalists and, potentially, extending their careers.

Thus, robotics in interventional medicine appeals to not only the highest-skilled physician, but also broadly across the entire physician population. But to effectively reach that customer group, Corindus will have to adopt strategies that robotics companies have shied away from, such as pricing the systems low and keeping the technology simple.

Thirty-two years ago, when Andreas Gruntzig, MD, performed the first angioplasty procedure, he launched a phenomenon, interventional cardiology, that remains, even after all these years, the best example of a clinical revolution enabled and powered by technological innovation. Now far beyond coronary revascularization, interventional techniques are being applied not just to cardiovascular procedures once undreamed of – most notably in the advent of percutaneous valves – but also to other clinical spaces, including orthopedics and ENT.

But while interventional cardiology remains a largely technology-enabled discipline, the number of significant technology advances in the field have been surprisingly few since its earliest days. Rapid exchange systems and, in imaging, IVUS have helped advance technique, while drug-eluting stents have scored major therapeutic gains. But for the most part, interventional cardiology as it is done today looks remarkably like the procedure Gruntzig pioneered three decades ago.

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