The robot is coming
Paul Levy's giving in.
Despite his previous doubts about the value of marketing claims versus medical evidence for the da Vinci Robot Surgical System, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO says that the hospital is getting one.
"Why? Well, in simple terms, because virtually all the academic medical centers and many community hospitals in the Boston area have bought one," he writes on his blog Running a Hospital.
Patients, doctors in training, and physicians being recruited to the hospital expect Beth Israel Deaconess to have the approximately $1.5 million system, in which a surgeon, guided by video images, sits at a console directing robotic arms wielding surgical instruments. Prostate surgery is one of the common uses of robotic systems. A Boston Medical Center surgeon performs cardiac bypass surgery using the robotic system.
"So there you have it," Levy concludes. "It is an illustrative story of the health care system in which we operate."
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Contributors
blogger
Elizabeth Cooney is a former
health reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, where she also was a
business reporter and an editor. Earlier in her career, she edited medical
books and journals at Little, Brown, and worked for Boston magazine.Boston Globe Health and Science staff:
- Gideon Gil, Health and Science Editor
- Ishani Ganguli, Short White Coat blogger
