An experienced Chinese medical team successfully completed a groundbreaking remote robotic surgical operation at a frontier practical conference on Friday.
Led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) academician Zhang Xu, who is also the urology department director at the Third Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, the Chinese medical team carried out the operation simultaneously in Rome, Italy, and Beijing, China.
The two locations are about 8,100 kilometers apart, with the two-way communication distance exceeding 20,000 kilometers.
Led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) academician Zhang Xu, who is also the urology department director at the Third Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, the Chinese medical team carried out the operation simultaneously in Rome, Italy, and Beijing, China.
The two locations are about 8,100 kilometers apart, with the two-way communication distance exceeding 20,000 kilometers.
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NewsTranscript
00:00In a world first, Chinese medical teams have operated remotely on a cancer patient from a different continent.
00:07The pioneering procedure involved a robot in Beijing being controlled by a specialist in Rome.
00:14Our correspondent Jen Copestake reports.
00:18This patient in Beijing is being operated on by a robot controlled from the Italian capital, Rome, over 8,000 kilometers away.
00:28The Chinese team, including a backup surgeon, watched the operation closely at the 3rd Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army General Hospital.
00:37Professor Zhang Xu guided the robotic arms remotely via surgical console to complete delicate work of removing a lesion from the patient's prostate.
00:48The two-way communication may be happening between cities on opposite sides of the world, but the robot performed the surgery as if the doctor was in the room.
00:58The delay, or latency, was only 135 milliseconds, below the 200 millisecond standard suggested by various medical studies for telesurgery.
01:08The biggest problem with remote surgery is communication and whether there is any delay.
01:12Today, there was almost no delay, the same as an on-site surgery.
01:16To me, it was really a historical experience, a historical moment.
01:22The fact that he was able to do it in Rome makes us very, very happy.
01:28After the success of the operation, the team says it will experiment with using the technology to direct surgical treatments for the military in frontline and remote environments.
01:39Jen Copestake, CGTN.