The Medical City Philippines welcomes partnership on robotic surgery program

The Medical City (TMC), a private tertiary care hospital in the Philippines, welcomes partnerships with UAE hospitals for its robotic surgery program, which is rapidly gaining global popularity due to the many benefits it offers to both patients and surgeons.

A few hospitals and specialized clinics in the UAE have expressed interests on collaborating with TMC Philippines for education and training in the  Robotic Surgery Program which gives quicker, less traumatic, reduced pain and blood loss during operations and minimal scarring and shorter hospitalization after the procedure.

TMC Philippines is a pioneer for robotics surgery and has been offering this program since 2010. It also provides training and support to other hospitals in the Philippines that require more advanced medical procedures.

Dr. Julius Cajucom, Urologist and Head of the Robotics Surgery Program at TMC Philippines said that he was surprised to learn that only a few hospitals in the UAE use the robots to perform certain surgical procedures.

“We welcome the partnership and are more than willing to provide the education and training to medical practitioners in the UAE on the use of robots to perform surgical procedures. The UAE is considered a medical tourism destination so tourists seeking medical treatment here would expect that the country offers the most-advanced technology in healthcare,” he added.

There is one hospital in Sharjah and one in Umm Al Quwain that have reportedly performed surgical operations using robots and both have been successful.

In robotics surgery, Dr Cajucom explained that it is still the surgeon who performs the surgery with the use of computer-controlled robots to assist in certain surgical procedures. The robot’s “hands” have a high degree of dexterity, enabling the  surgeons  to reach hard and difficult areas in the body that would otherwise only be accessible through open surgery.

There are different sensitivity settings on the console enabling the surgeon to choose the degree of movement of the instrument and the surgeon is seated, lowering surgeon fatigue.

“The advantages of robotic surgery are manifold. This technological advancement allows patients or individuals to opt for a less traumatic approach to their healthcare. Patients easily avoid all the complications brought about by most operations,” noted Dr Cajucom.

Recently TMC acquired its second robot, the more advanced da Vinci Si Surgical System. The procedure is currently available for urological, colorectal and gynecological operations but can also be utilized for head and neck, trans-oral, thoracic and vascular surgeries.