Virtual Incision co-founder/CTO Shane Farritor sees opportunity for more medtech in space

Sending a surgical robotics system into orbit for research wasn’t Virtual Incision co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Shane Farritor’s first brush with space.

Farritor worked on NASA’s Mars Rover project years before designing and testing a space version of Virtual Incision’s MIRA (Miniaturized In Vivo Robotic Assistant) Surgical System.

In an interview with Medical Design & Outsourcing, he said he sees more opportunity for medical device developers to test their products in space — and to design devices for astronauts orbiting Earth or on long voyages to explore our solar system.

MDO: What research was Virtual Incision doing in space that you couldn’t do on Earth?

Farritor: “We created a little mission control center here at Virtual Incision headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska, and connected through the Marshall Space Flight Center that connects to White Sands and up to the satellites and eventually to the Space Station so we could control our surgical robot from here on Earth. We had six surgeons and they all were able to complete some simulated surgical tasks. I was really happy that every one of them were able to do this. And then we had a couple surgeons do some more advanced tasks, and we’re now [looking at] how that compares to if you’re just operating across the room. The space station is 250 miles up, but we operated for a couple of hours, so it went around the Earth in that time. Eight thousand miles away — it’s hard to get more remote than that on Earth. … Our device has shown to be very robust and robust in a lot of different conditions — launch vibrations, radiation — and we’ve done really well. Things were technically perfect. I can’t imagine something that could have gone better, actually, with our device.”

MDO: This space mission all started with University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student Rachael Wagner, is that right?

Farritor: “Yeah, Rachael’s the graduate student who’s worked on the project with me. She’s a very talented researcher, and we were lucky to have her on this, dealing with NASA and getting all our testing lined up and all these details as well as the technical aspects. Rachael was critical. … I expect a strong dissertation from her. We’re getting some really good results here.”

MDO: What were some of the biggest challenges of conducting R&D aboard the Space Station?

Farritor: “Certainly the comms issue was challenging. … We had to have really strong communication protocols and software so we could connect to the Space Station, tolerant to loss of signal and those kinds of issues that are regular events on the Space Station. [Another challenge was designing a device with a] small size — we go back to the fact that our robot’s different than everyone else because it’s miniature, and we think miniature is big. It’s exciting. You don’t just wake up in the morning and have a robot for the Space Station. It took a lot of testing and a lot of effort.”

Do you think that there’s opportunity for device development in space beyond surgical robotics?

Farritor: “Absolutely. If you’re doing surgery in space, things have gone poorly, especially in the short term. Generally, astronauts are healthy folks. But there are all kinds of other difficulties associated with space that that I think new devices would be excellent for, [such as] robotic stroke rehab devices on Earth that could be used to maintain bone structure and muscle mass on space. … Dry skin is a big problem because of the controlled air environment. There’s lots and lots of other opportunities that are probably even more immediately relevant than surgery. .. Another big one is ophthalmology. Astronauts develop retinal problems. I’m not sure they understand why, but certainly the fluidic shifts in your body in zero G might contribute to different pressures in your eyes.”

MDO: What advice can you offer for designing medtech for space?

Farritor: “You’ve got to do something worthwhile. That’s the key … you’ve got to solve a problem, a true need. … The NASA Human Research Program has identified a priority list of capabilities and skills required for long-duration human spaceflight. They’re a great resource if someone wants to get involved in this.”

Read more from our interview with Virtual Incision co-founder and CTO Shane Farritor: ‘Miniature is big’: How Virtual Incision designed the small but mighty MIRA surgical robot — and then shrank it again for space