Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Infosys, has signed an agreement with the Asia Heart Foundation, granting Rs 8 crore to the institute for adopting robotics in healthcare.
The donation will be used to buy the IS 3000 da Vinci Si system, which is a high-end equipment that would help enable robotic surgeries, Infosys said in a statement.
The da Vinci system of surgery is affordable, high-quality and minimally invasive. It caters to those people who currently do not have access to the equipment. "The new robotic surgery facilities sponsored by Infosys Foundation aim at reducing morbidity in complex surgeries and the Average Length of Stay (ALOS) for keyhole and laparoscopic surgeries," it said.
According to the statement, a part of the fund will be used to train surgeons and present opportunities for research that would help use robots in complex surgeries and "indigenising the production of such technology in India."
After training as many as 97 surgeons, the Asia Heart Foundation is expected to conduct over 1,500 surgeries over the next seven years. This will prove beneficial for more than 1,900 patients, it added.
The global medical robots market is expected to reach $11.4 Billion by 2020 from $4.2 Billion in 2015 at a CAGR of 22.2 percent, according to the report "Medical Robots Market by Product (Robotic systems (Surgical Robots, Rehabilitation Robots, Hospital Robots, Assistive Robots, Telemedicine Robots), Instruments & Accessories) & Application (Orthopedic, Laparoscopy, Neurology) - Global Forecasts to 2020."
In July 2011, Mumbai's first robotic facility for surgery was inaugurated at Asian Heart Institute in Bandra-Kurla Complex, and it has been used in both cardiac and non-cardiac surgeries. According to the Asia Heart Foundation website, robotic surgery is used in cases of urology, cardiac, cancer, ENT as well as general surgery.
