by
Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | February 27, 2015
From the January/February 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Olympus is now marketing the QuickClip Pro, which is a rotatable clip with the ability to open and close. “Basically, you’re talking about a very long shaft where the working end is down in the body and the control end is several feet away in the hands of the physician or nurse,” says Olympus’ Doyle, “So to be able to rotate from outside the body and precisely position the clip with the edges of a defect or bleed is an important and fairly unique capability.”
Robotic or computer-assisted developments
Ladd says that the overwhelming majority of endoscopic procedures are relatively straightforward and that robotics is still primarily a topic of interest reserved for the academic and research side of things.
“Making it practical for the average gastroenterologist who does eight procedures per day of moderate complexity, it’s probably not something that will become realistic and usable to them for another five to 10 years,” says Ladd.
Lewis says that while there have been attempts at robotic colonoscopy, none have been successful. The consensus, however, is that the popularization of robotics in an endoscopic setting is more a question of when than if.
“Robotics is one of the most important and misunderstood areas of surgery,” says Wetter, of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, “99.99 percent of robotic surgery is really computer assisted surgery.” Meaning the surgeon is doing the surgery — not a robot. “The reason there has been this discussion about robotics is that we haven’t seen big changes recently,” says Wetter, who mentions the da Vinci Surgical System from Intuitive Surgical as an example, but says that system had so many patents associated with it that the competition was stifled. He thinks that will change soon. “There is no question that the idea of the computer chip and its enhancement make better surgeons, just as the way a car now has computer assist on the brakes, steering, and safety features,” says Wetter.
New life for used equipment
Not every physician or facility can afford the newest equipment, so they may explore fully refurbished alternatives. Consequently, a number of companies, including OEMs, have tapped into that growing market. Olympus, the market leader in Endoscopy, is in a particularly good position to help fulfill the demand for certified pre-owned (CPO) scopes.
“We fully refurbish all of our CPO scopes with original Olympus parts that are installed by extensively trained technicians in our National Service Center in Silicon Valley,” says Tonya Resutek, CPO product manager at Olympus.
