In Australia, a live demonstration of remote-controlled robotic surgery showed how surgical expertise may increasingly be shared across boundaries.
At a plenary session of May’s 94th Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Annual Scientific Congress (ASC), Dr Mohit Bhandari, founder director of India’s Mohak Bariatrics and Robotics, briefly controlled robotic instruments from Australia to perform part of a procedure on a patient in India.
The demonstration showed how tele-enabled robotic systems may support surgical practice in tightly controlled clinical environments, with local surgical teams remaining central to patient care.
“This is not just a technological advancement, but a shift in how surgical expertise can be shared across borders. The implications for training, collaboration and patient care are significant,” said Dr Ravi Rao, bariatric surgery convenor for the congress. However, organisers stressed such procedures remain in the early stages of clinical application and require strict governance, oversight and safety protocols.
In November last year, surgeons in China performed what was reported as the world’s first remote robotic subretinal injection, controlling the needle when more than 4,200km away from the patient.
