With perspectives spanning hepatobiliary, gynecologic, and cardiac surgeries, NewYork-Presbyterian’s Dr. Jason Hawksworth (Columbia), Dr. Tamatha Fenster (Weill Cornell Medicine), and Dr. Arnar Geirsson (Columbia) describe how they each came to incorporate robotics into their practices. One of the biggest takeaways: robotic surgeries allow for more accuracy in minimally-invasive approaches; so patients experience shorter hospital stays and quicker recoveries, even after major procedures. But there are some limitations to robotic surgeries that the doctors are still navigating. Dr. Fenster discusses how there are haptics limitations in robotic surgery. As a result, she shares more about her innovative smartHER 3D MRI program that is addressing this issue and details how her and her team are developing a way of holographically projecting 3D MRIs over patients to help guide surgeons while they operate.

Since this episode aired, a team at Weill Cornell Medicine performed the first fully robotic liver transplant in the state of New York, and the Robotic Cardiac Surgery Program at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia completed over 100 robotic heart surgeries. Additionally, Dr. Tamatha Fenster put smartHER 3D MRI technology into practice.

For more information visit nyp.org/Advances