The next da Vinci? Chinese firms rush into vascular intervention robotics market
According to the data of a research report, the total number of registered cases of coronary intervention in Chinese Mainland in 2020 exceeded 1 million (excluding cases in military hospitals), an increase of 20.18% over 2020.
Now, the technological innovation of vascular interventional surgery is taking place, and vascular interventional robots will soon be approved for sale in China.
In China, MedBot, Enodmedical, Abrobo, Operation Robot, Meio CadiNav Medical, Rainmed, We Med and other enterprises are respectively “holding big moves” in the research and development of intervention robots. In the field of investment, financing projects at the level of 100 million yuan continue to appear in the field of vascular intervention robots.
Among them, “R-ONE vascular interventional robot” is introduced after MedBot and French vascular interventional robot manufacturer Robocath established a joint venture company, this system has completed all registered clinical trials in May 2022, and the company has submitted R-ONE registration application to the NMPA. Approval is expected in the near future.
Enodmedical recently revealed that its first-generation robotic system has completed registered clinical trials. The second generation of universal robots and the third generation of fully automatic robots began to lay out.
China can be said to be the most active market for the research and development of vascular interventional robots. Can Chinese companies on the track break out of the dark horse and repeat the lead of Da Vinci robots in the global market? In the next few years, we will find out.
The Coronary Heart Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center of the Cardiovascular Disease Hospital of Wuhan University People’s Hospital is one of the centers with the largest volume of vascular interventional surgery in central China. Since 2023, Dr. Qu Zhe has used vascular robots to complete surgeries for more than 40 patients, ranging in difficulty from the initial simple lesions to the later complex lesions. The good results obtained in these clinical trials indicate that the real clinical application of vascular interventional robots has been closer and closer.
Professor Jiang Xuejun, director of the Coronary Heart Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center at the Cardiovascular Hospital of Wuhan University People’s Hospital, said that Enodmedical’s vascular intervention robot “has the advantages of flexibility and convenience, and can be remotely controlled, which can increase the precision of intervention operation and achieve submillimeter fine-tuning.” Through the assistance of robots, the complex operation time can be shortened, the radiation exposure of doctors and patients can be reduced, the fatigue of doctors can be reduced, and the efficiency of surgery can be improved. And remote surgery can be performed so that marginal areas with few medical resources can have the same treatment.” These advantages summarized by Professor Jiang Xuejun are the greatest value of the future promotion of vascular intervention robots to clinical practice. These advantages summarized by Professor Jiang Xuejun are the greatest value of the future promotion of vascular intervention robots to clinical practice.
Dr. Qu Zhe said, “Now that I use the interventional robot to assist me, I have a deeper understanding of the shape of the blood vessels. The machine helps us feel the inside of the blood vessels more truly, so that I can operate the guide wire more accurately.”
Hong Jiong, technical director of Enodmedical, introduced to Xinmin Weekly that from the perspective of operational accuracy, Enodmedical’s robot-assisted surgery can achieve “sub-millimeter control.” For this point, Dr. Qu Zhe explained that there is a certain subjectivity in the operation of doctors in traditional surgery, such as “releasing the stent” such an action, because the heart is constantly beating, the blood vessels have been in a state of motion, and there is a amplitude of about 1 mm in the process of beating. The doctor has to rely on experience and feeling to find the beating cycle and release the stent. Whether the position of the release is a little forward or a little backward, the test of the traditional surgery is the level of different doctors. Robots can solve the problem of accuracy, Dr. Qu said.
This year may be the first year of robots
It can be seen from the industry news that this year may become the first year of vascular intervention robots in the Chinese market, and the products of many companies will successively gain market access.
On July 14 this year, a vascular interventional robot remote surgery has been successfully completed. Patients at the People’s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Doctors at the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (301 Hospital) in Beijing, doctors performed coronary interventional surgery on a 59-year-old patient with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease by means of a minimally invasive robotic “R-ONE robot.”
The doctor is 2,800 kilometers away from the patient, and the robot system extends the doctor’s “hand” and “brain” to the patient’s bed through 5G communication technology and executes the doctor’s orders through the robot. The stent was placed precisely at the site of the patient’s heart vessel stenosis, and the whole process took only 20 minutes. Postoperative radiographic review showed that the patient’s proximal and distal blood flow returned to normal and was in good condition, and he was discharged from hospital on July 17.
Liu Yu, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Med Bot, said in an interview with Xinmin Weekly that Minimally invasive Robot is very optimistic about the future application of vascular intervention robots in China.
Whether it is the government, industry authority experts or the capital market, there is great support for the research and development of vascular intervention robots.
At the opening event of the “2023 Shanghai International Biomedical Industry Week” held on October 16, Shanghai officially released three cutting-edge track action plans for synthetic biology, gene therapy and medical robots. “Shanghai Action Plan to Promote the Development of Medical robot Industry (2023-2025)” proposed that in the future, Shanghai will form an industrial space with Zhangjiang biomedicine innovation leading core area and “Big Zero Bay” scientific and technological innovation function source area as the core, cultivate 10 leading enterprises of medical robot subdivision circuit, and emerge 10 international advanced innovative products. It is mentioned that “Shanghai will accelerate the research of multi-channel vascular intervention robots”.
Domestic medical experts have also supported the development of vascular intervention robots with practical actions.
At the 17th Eastern Cardiology Conference (OCC2023) held in May this year, Ge Junbo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, remotely controlled the vascular interventional surgery robot located in the operating room of Zhongshan Hospital on the platform of the conference. Successfully completed coronary angiography, guided wire delivery, optical coherence tomography (OCT) examination, balloon dilation and other surgical operations, and successfully implanted absorbable stent for a patient with coronary circumflex branch disease together with the operating room team of Zhongshan Hospital. In the OCT examination, Professor Li Chenguang, Department of Cardiology, Zhongshan Hospital, remotely examined and interpreted the OCT examination results of patients before and after balloon dilation and after the release of absorbable stent.
On December 28, 2022, the National Clinical Medical Research Center for Radiology and Therapy led by Dr. Ge Junbo reached a strategic cooperation with Shenzhen Aibo Medical Robot Co., Ltd. on the “joint development of panvascular interventional surgery robots”, and the two sides will carry out in-depth medical cooperation in product development, animal experiments and clinical registration, and promote the development of the vascular interventional surgery robot industry.
At present, the vascular intervention robot being developed by various domestic enterprises is defined as a generation of robots, and each company’s products have their own characteristics. Hong Jiong, technical director of Enodmedical, said that the company’s generation of robot products are equipped with special supplies for robots, and are also compatible with traditional surgical instruments, which makes the robot more adaptable.
Why is China the hottest?
In the vascular interventional robot track, China’s research and development progress is almost synchronized with Western developed countries, with China’s current research and development heat, Chinese products are likely to be one step ahead in the vascular interventional robot track.
Why can China become the hottest market for vascular interventional robot research and development? Insiders believe that there are several important reasons.
First of all, China has a large population and a large number of patients with vascular diseases, and the demand for vascular interventional surgery is huge. At the same time, the time cycle of doctor training is long and the cost is high, which produces the contradiction between supply and demand. In popular terms, a large number of patients expect good vascular interventional doctors to perform surgery on them, but the supply of good doctors is not enough.
Secondly, Chinese society has a high enthusiasm for technological innovation, and scientific and technological enterprises have sought new growth points and innovation points. Some large local enterprises have also developed and matured, and have the ability to accelerate the research and development of vascular intervention robots through commercial cooperation or technical cooperation with overseas companies.
China is encouraging China end uses for more domestic products in latest years. Thus, more and more overseas manufacturers are planning localization in China. BradyKnows localization team has extensive experiences in facility establishment, audit, supplier evaluation, manufacturing, registration, and marketing in China. Pls feel free to let us know any questions on China entry via info@bradyknowsmedical.com
Source：Reporter：Huang Qi, Xinmin Weekly
Translated & edited ： Bradyknow
