J&J and Google’s Verb Surgical looks to define, lift robotic surgery

 20-Oct-16, Mass Device 

Robotic surgery units available on the market right now are not technically “robots,” according to Johnson & Johnson worldwide medical devices chairman Gary Pruden.

Image: OrthoFeed

But Verb Surgical, J&J’s joint venture with Google parent Alphabet‘s Verily Life Sciences, will be looking to produce a system that is truly robotic, and that will help improve surgical outcomes worldwide.

"The top 5% of surgeons can do things that the other 95% just can’t do... If you go to Shanghai, quality of care is actually quite good, at the Shanghai Hospital. You go to Albert Einstein in Brazil, quality of care is pretty good. Go 40 kilometers north [in] either one of those locations, not so good," Pruden said. "Our goal is to democratize surgery, to raise the standard of care by providing surgeon informatics, tools at the point of surgical care."

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