Health Bite: Hospital CEO Gives in to "Robot" Technology

Paul F. Levy, president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (photo: hsph.harvard.edu)

Paul Levy, the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess hospital in Boston, finally gave in to a “medical worker” who doesn’t speak or complain. He confessed he’s buying a Da Vinci, a "robot" that helps doctors perform minimally-invasive surgeries.

“I am writing to let you know we have decided to buy one for our hospital. Why? Well, in simple terms, because virtually all the academic medical centers and many community hospitals in the Boston area have bought one,” wrote Levy in his blog, “Running a Hospital” (runningahospital.blogspot.com).

But Levy is still skeptical. He commented on the purchase “without making any representations about the relative clinical value of this robotic system versus manual laparoscopic surgery.”

(Laparoscopic, or minimally invasive, surgery involves small incisions of less than 1 cm each, instead of one large incision.  A laparoscope camera device is inserted into the incisions, projecting high-resolution video images.  Laparoscopic surgery often gives patients less pain, less scarring and shorter recovery times compared to surgery involving large incisions.)

Last June, EthnicNEWz.org reported on the use of the da Vinci by a Boston Medical Center cardiac surgeon who tours the country to promote the technology. 

Levy says the most convincing aspect about the da Vinci is this: “Prospective residents who are trying to decide where to have their surgical training look upon our lack of the robot as a deficit in our education program. Prospective physician recruits feel likewise.”

source:  EthnicNEWz.org

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