Attack Of The Hair Restoration Robot

Article preview from IN VIVO - February, 2012

Robots invaded the operating room years ago, providing surgeons with high precision tools to perform a wide range of procedures from prostatectomies to partial knee replacements. Now, Restoration Robotics is hoping to take over the private practices of hair restoration surgeons. Last year, the venture-backed company launched ARTAS, a robotic system capable of minimally invasive removal of hair follicles used in hair transplants.

Attack Of The Hair Restoration Robot

Article preview from IN VIVO - February, 2012

Doug Kelly gave new meaning to the colloquialism “putting your own skin in the game.” The phrase normally applies to an investor willing to risk his or her own money as a clear vote of confidence in a company with a still undetermined future. However Kelly, general partner at Alloy Ventures, put his actual skin into the game in December. Bald most of his adult life, Kelly chose to undergo a hair transplant procedure using the ARTAS system, the robotic hair retrieval system manufactured by Restoration Robotics Inc., one of his own portfolio companies. Kelly never was comfortable with his baldness, but he was less comfortable with the surgical options available to remedy it. His decision to undergo the procedure using the ARTAS robot only happened because he had confidence that the new device could reliably produce the result he wanted.

Kelly’s change of heart is an early indicator of a robotic revolution Restoration Robotics might be bringing to the aesthetics industry. In recent years, companies like Accuray Inc., Hansen Medical Inc., Intuitive Surgical Inc. and MAKO Surgical Corp. have introduced robot-assisted surgical systems that provide surgeons higher levels of precision during sensitive procedures such as prostate cancer, atrial fibrillation or brain surgery. The value proposition in those cases is clear: a steadier hand means a better outcome and less of a chance that the patient will suffer debilitating side effects or worse.

Restoration Robotics’ pitch isn’t centered on life and death. But the company is banking on the ability of its robotic system to change the hair restoration industry by adopting the same thesis that put robots in assembly plants around the world: robots are steady, reliable, precise and physically capable of performing repetitive motions without fail. Restoration Robotics’ executives and investors say the ARTAS system may interest the 90% of hair restoration surgeons, dermatologists and plastic surgeons who currently can’t or won’t do follicular unit extractions (FUEs).

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