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Remote robotic-assisted PCI program to be launched
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Corindus Vascular Robotics, provider of the CorPath Vascular Robotic System, announced the launch of a feasibility investigation for a remote robotics program in partnership with Sanford Health and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
If successful, the program would enable interventional cardiologists at one center to robotically control the movement of interventional devices at a remote facility, Tal Wenderow, co-founder and executive vice president of product and business development for Corindus, told Cardiology Today.
Sanford Health, which is the largest rural nonprofit health care system in the United States, approached Corindus with the idea because “their biggest challenge is the ability to treat the patient when the patient takes a lot of time to get to the hospital,” Wenderow said. “It’s very exciting for us because we believe it can change care in rural areas … or any place where patients are more than 1 hour away from a major metropolitan area and need to go to a smaller hospital to get the same level of care.”
Sanford Health currently has three CorPath systems, two at the Sanford Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D., and one at the Sanford Aberdeen Medical Center in Aberdeen, S.D., Wenderow said.
One aspect of the feasibility investigation will focus on physician training, Wenderow told Cardiology Today. “What differences will there be in the workflow in the remote settings compared to the inside-the-room settings?” he asked. “Once you understand the workflow, then you understand how to design the product and how to train the operators. It’s premature to say right now how to train them differently, but there will definitely be a different level of training” for remote operators.
Later, the program could be made available to other hospital systems.
“One of our other customers just bought a sister hospital 60 miles away,” Wenderow said. “They asked, ‘How can I save myself a day of travel over there when there is a case there and I need to help a doctor who doesn’t have my skill set and improve our efficiency while providing better care to the patient?’”
The CorPath system is the first FDA-approved procedure to allow controlled placement of coronary guidewires and stent/balloon catheters from an interventional, lead-lined cockpit. According to the company, the technology can save hospitals money because it enables the interventional cardiologist to know exactly what stent size they need and where to deliver it, eliminating the need to use two or more stents per lesion.
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program funds projects using information technologies to give patients in rural areas access to specialty and emergency medical care and the latest medical therapies, as well as to provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and emergency management system personnel. – by Erik Swain
Disclosure: Wenderow is an employee and co-founder of Corindus Vascular Robotics.