80 Indonesian Doctors Trained To Control Remote Surgical Robots

Screenshot of Robotic Surgeon Dr. Hasan Sadikin Bandung Reno Rudiman interviewed via Zoom (Via ANTARA)

JAKARTA - As many as 80 surgeons from RSUP Dr Hasan Sadikin (RSHS) Bandung and RSUP Dr Sardjito Yogyakarta underwent training to increase competence in the use of robotic surgery technology for remote surgery needs.

"At Hasan Sadikin Hospital there are 40 doctors who have been trained. Some have completed training since March 2022," said Robotic Surgeon Dr. RSUP. Hasan Sadikin Bandung Reno Rudiman interviewed via Zoom in Jakarta, Antara, Thursday, June 30.

He said the participants came from the surgeon profession in Indonesia. They attend regular training using the Sina Robotic simulator available at Hasan Sadikin Hospital.

Operator training in Indonesia, said Reno, involved speakers from the Robotic Sina producing country in Iran. Doctors are trained to complete simulator tasks which consist of 14 tasks, including hand and eye visual skills using the Virtual Reality (VR) Robotic Telesurgery Simulator.

"There is a tutorial that is supervised by the provider Sina. On average, the participants are young doctors under 45 years old who adapt more quickly. There are also those who are over 45 years old, they are a bit slow to adapt," he said.

The instrument used by Sina has a size of 5 mm, which allows the machine to move more flexibly to minimize injuries caused during surgery.

Reno said a similar activity was also attended by around 40 surgeons at Dr Sardjito Hospital Yogyakarta.

Special Staff of the Minister of Health for the Resilience of the Pharmaceutical Industry and Medical Devices, Prof. Laksono Trisnantoro, said that the use of robotics in surgical practice is one way to distribute health services to remote areas.

"Of course this is part of the Ministry of Health's policy of sending surgeons to various places and providing medical education," he said.

He said Indonesia is a country with many islands, so there is inequality in health services in remote areas because the availability of doctors tends to be in big cities.

Artificial intelligence, which has now penetrated the health sector, said Laksono, opens up opportunities for telesurgery services to be implemented in Indonesia.

Telesurgery or remote surgery allows surgeons as operators to serve patients in need remotely, at different hospital locations, even from different islands, countries, or continents.

"This is an alternative way to use robotic telesurgery. Doctors are in Surabaya or Bandung, patients in Indramayu in Kalimantan or other areas, with the support of information technology, are expected to be able to operate robotics," he said.

The development of robotics for remote surgery in Indonesia is a multi-year project that aims to improve service access and quality of health services for inaccessible areas of Indonesia.

He said the facility started with the initiation of business matching at the Health Business Forum, a multi-year and multi-stakeholder Robotic Telesurgery project design was made for 2021-2024.

"With access to knowledge transfer and technology transfer, domestic industries are also able to produce their tools and spare parts domestically with a sufficient Domestic Component Level (TKDN)," he said.

The robotic surgery training curriculum will be certified and accredited, so that in the future robotic surgery expertise is recommended to be included in the surgeon's specialist education curriculum in Indonesia, said Laksono.