Medtronic’s Hugo robot-assisted surgery system [Image courtesy of Medtronic]
Speaking on the “Road to a robot: Designing technology to address unmet needs & barriers” panel at DeviceTalks Boston last week, Stow explained that elephants are big, taking up a lot of space and that they eat a lot, making them expensive to maintain.
When customers came to Medtronic about 10 years ago asking them to consider building a surgical robot, the excessive size and price of maintenance applied to those systems, too.
“We looked at the current state of robotics going back 10-plus years, and we realized there was an opportunity for us to come in,” Stow said. “Customers were saying, ‘Hey, could you make something more flexible that fits better into our rooms and into our hospital setting?’”
