The Healthcare Foundation is working with NL Health Services to implement robotic-assisted surgery in the health care system.
The system is known as the dual-console Da Vinci Xi robotic assisted surgical system, and it is being touted as something that will transform the way surgical procedures are done in the province.
The system is already being used in a training capacity at the Health Sciences, and the foundation has launched an $8-million campaign to go toward its purchase and training for staff – for which over half the money has already been raised.
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The foundation says Da Vinci will support over 500 complex surgeries per year, reducing the need for people to travel outside the province. Dr. Angela Bussey, one of the surgeons who has been advocating for it, says the new method can also help with shorter recovery times, fewer complications, and reduced post-op pain.
“Envision the deepest, darkest place that you could go and put a grain of sand there or a little piece of corn and be like, get that for me. You could never do it with your hands, but with the Da Vinci, you can do that. And think about that being a very small amount of cancer or other disease that someone needs to get rid of. And we’re able to do that. So I think that the impact of this device just continues to go on and on.”
