Thursday 2 April 2015

How 6 People Changed the Face of Robotic Surgery: A Michigan Ross School of Business Study Paved the Way For Indian Multispecialty Robotic Surgery

“Robotic surgery was a technology that was going nowhere in India.  I hoped to change that,” recalls Professor Mahendra Bhandari, a renowned Urologist and kidney transplant surgeon.  Dr. Bhandari was a student at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.  For his ExecMap Project in 2009, he proposed to create a business model for making expensive robotic surgery more affordable for Indian patients.  He needed classmate-volunteers to join his team for his plan to succeed.  The ambitious project recruited six members, led by Professor Andy Lawlor, who visited India and analyzed the data firsthand. 


From left to right: Rob Barrow, Hannah Hensel, Lynn Bishop, Mahendra Bhandari, Matt Campbell, Skip Kiil
The Ross India trip was a real “eye-opening experience,” according to team member Robert Barrow.  Barrow, now vice president at Wright & Filippis, a large Michigan-based healthcare and prosthetics firm, remembers, “To look at India, with maybe one or two robots that were really not being used, and to develop a true market penetration strategy…  If you look at where we started in 2009, to where you are today, the progress is unbelievable.”

Today in India, there are 28 robotic programs and 3,000 multispecialty procedures done per year.  “In just five years, thanks in part to the plan established by the ExecMap Project, not only has robotic surgery gained a rightful place in Indian hospitals, it has proven that India has the expertise to lead the world in developing new uses for this minimally invasive tool,” says Dr. Bhandari.  Medanta Vattikuti Institute of Robotic Surgery is the pioneer in establishing robotic renal transplants with hypothermia in collaboration with Dr. Mani Menon and the Vattikuti Urology Institute in Detroit.  India is the only country in the world that has multispecialty robotic surgery programs and helps to make this form of surgery cost effective.  Today, the Vattikuti Foundation continues to support robotic surgery efforts in India, Europe, and in the United States.  

WATCH NOW: Rob Barrow's comments:




Monday 2 March 2015

Vattikuti Global Robotics Survey

Attention VGR faculty, participants, and attendees:

We would love to have your feedback. Let us know your thoughts about VGR using this short form here:





If you are having trouble viewing the form, click here.


Thank you!

Friday 21 March 2014

Pictures from the 2014 Robotic Surgeons Council on our Facebook Page!


Friday 8 November 2013

Announcement!

We are pleased to announce that:

The next Robotic Surgeons Council will be held on February 8-9, 2014


Check back on our site for details soon!

Thursday 29 August 2013

A New Cooling Technique for Kidney Stone Removal by the Vattikuti Urology Institute!

Urologists at the Vattikuti Urology Institute (VUI) at Henry Ford devised an unconventional technique to remove a staghorn calculi, or a large kidney stone with sharp, craggy branches, which can lead to disease or death if left untreated. The technique is called Robotic Anatrophic Nephrolithotomy or RANL, for short and is combined with a cooling procedure, referred to as ICE.

While using this procedure to remove staghorn kidney stones is a first, doctors from Henry Ford and the Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital (MPUH) in Gujarat, India have used RANL on 3 patients without any complications. Researchers at the VUI and MPUH explain that the new procedure is “a safe, minimally invasive option that may be considered in patients with staghorn stones.”

Read more on our site!