Our next Board meeting will be September 13th at 5:00 pm, on Zoom and at the Grand Ely Lodge
Topics for Today - Our own John Collins who is introducing his robotic surgery to his practice in the region and here at Ely Bloomenson Community Hospital.
John Bollins is one of our newer members and he has given us his background in the past, having grown up in Ohio and his career in Duluth at both Essentia and St. Lukes. He has now begun his own surgical practice, based primarily in Hibbing, but serving the entire region.
He gave us a great introduction to the reality and advantages of robotic surgery (more a remotely operated system by the surgeon) and its advantages over laproscopic surgery. He gave us a history of this more common remotely operated surgery came into being, beginning in the early 1800's and finally coming in to common practice in the 1980's to the 1990's. Laproscopic surgery is clearly advantageous to open surgery, with less area opened and vulnerable, the robotic component is even more advantageous.
The systems are expensive and are not yet given the same credence that the current methodologies, but he gave us many reasons why we need to consider this 21st century technology. Some of these advantages are greater precision, more precise movements by the surgeon, ergonomic advantages for the practitioners, and lower infection rates. Negatives include the cost, the difficulty when done with backup power, and the learning curve.
This is truly a major advance for our medical community and something that will benefit us all in the near future.