Medical experts have called for increased investment in specialist training, reliable internet connectivity, electricity and biomedical engineering capacity to sustain robotic and tele-robotic surgery in Nigeria.
The experts spoke on Saturday after Redeemer’s Health Village, Lagos, performed the country’s first-ever remote robotic surgery, with the patient at NISA Premier Hospital, Abuja, while the surgeon controlled the robot from Lagos.
According to the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), telerobotic surgery allows doctors to operate on patients remotely using computer-guided robotic arms and high-speed internet.
The development came weeks after BusinessDay reported that Redeemer’s Health Village had invested $4m in robotic surgical services and training as part of efforts to reduce medical tourism and develop a pool of Nigerian specialists capable of performing advanced procedures locally.
The hospital had said the investment covered robotic surgical services and the training of surgeons, nurses, biomedical engineers and other healthcare professionals.
At the latest procedure, Adedamola Dada, the Chief Executive Officer of Redeemer’s Health Village, said the hospital had demonstrated that a surgeon could operate on a patient in another Nigerian city without being physically present at the operating table.
Dada said the first procedure performed during the programme was a robotic-assisted pyeloplasty on a 28-year-old woman with a congenital obstruction affecting the flow of urine from her kidney.
However, he said the more significant development was the telerobotic procedure in which a patient at NISA Premier Hospital in Abuja was operated on remotely from Lagos.
Explaining how the procedure worked, Dada said the surgical robot at the Abuja hospital was connected to the robotic control system at Redeemer’s Health Village through an internet connection.
He added that the surgeon in Lagos was able to control the robotic system in Abuja and perform the operation remotely.
‘What this simply means is that for very complicated cases where we don’t even have the manpower in the country, surgeons can stay in the United States and operate on that patient here,’ Dada noted.
He said the demonstration could eventually make it possible for Nigerians requiring highly specialised procedures to receive treatment locally, even when the required specialist was in another country.
According to him, the hospital used multiple connectivity options during the Abuja procedure, while other safety measures were put in place to ensure that the operation could continue safely.
Dada, however, said the success of telerobotic surgery would depend on Nigeria’s ability to address the shortage of trained professionals who could operate, maintain and support the technology.
He called on the Federal Government to support the training of surgeons, nurses and biomedical engineers through scholarships and other programmes.
‘My message to government is the need to support and sponsor Nigerians, the surgeons, the nurses, the biomedical engineers who would want to come and do this training here,’ he said.
Dada said the hospital was establishing a robotic academy where surgeons, robotic operating theatre nurses, biomedical engineers and product specialists would be trained.
He said the aim was to develop enough local expertise to make robotic and telerobotic surgery available to more Nigerians.
On his part, Ekwenna Davies, a professor of urology and transplantation, robotic surgeon described the remote procedure as a demonstration of how technology could expand access to specialist surgical care.
Davies, who performed the surgery remotely, said the patient had a kidney tumour at NISA Premier Hospital, Abuja, while his team in Lagos controlled the robotic system.
He said the procedure demonstrated that advanced surgical expertise could be delivered across geographical boundaries without requiring the patient or specialist to travel.
He added that the development could also allow specialists in the Nigerian diaspora to participate in the treatment of patients in the country.
According to him, the long-term objective should be to develop a system that could operate beyond a single hospital.
‘It means access to experts from within and outside the country. Telesurgery can be done from any part of the world with precision, with excellent results,’ Davies said.
The Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of RoboMed Global said the sustainability of the technology would depend heavily on training.
He noted that the country needed to develop professionals who could maintain the equipment rather than rely entirely on foreign technicians.
He said the country’s ability to sustain telerobotic surgery would ultimately depend on the strength of the ecosystem around the technology, including surgeons, nurses, engineers, technicians and telecommunications infrastructure.
Kunle Onakoya, Chairman of the Board of Redeemer’s Health Village and an orthopaedic surgeon, said the remote procedure showed how robotic technology could change the way specialist healthcare was delivered.
Onakoya noted that the technology would require strong safety protocols and adequate technical support.
He said reliable connectivity was one of the critical requirements for telerobotic surgery, noting that interruptions to communication between the surgeon and the robotic system could have serious implications.