Palomar Medical Center showed off its new, 4th-generation surgical robot on Tuesday, letting employees and the public try out its dexterous arms.
The hospital in Escondido is the first in San Diego County to receive the new da Vinci Xi robot, which allows surgeons to perform complex but minimally invasive medical procedures.
“We are committed to the technology,” said Bobette Brown, marketing and public relations manager. “People, of course, want the most minimally invasive surgery possible.”
The $1 million robot has four arms, one of which holds a camera. The surgeon sits in a booth and operates the arms, viewing a greatly magnified, three-dimensional image.
Although the hospital is already using the new robot, and a second, earlier model to perform 16 surgeries a week, many hospital employees haven’t seen the robot up close, and crowded around the unit on display in the lobby.
“They’ve never been able to see it and touch it,” Brown explained.
The robot is made by Intuitive Surgical Inc. in Silicon Valley. There are some 3,000 da Vinci robots in operation worldwide, most of them in the United States.
