Form and functionThe Flex Robotic System is equipped with a high-definition camera and can bend to conform to a patient’s anatomy, allowing a surgeon to guide instruments through the patient’s body.
Innovator: Howie ChosetAge: 47Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and co-founder of Medrobotics in Raynham, Mass.
Setup A surgeon inserts the robot into a patient’s mouth and maneuvers it into place using a joystick-like controller.
OperationThe surgeon uses hand controls to manipulate lasers, graspers, and other instruments attached to the robot, guiding them through the tubing to where they’re needed.
Origin Choset conceived of Flex in 2004 and developed the first prototypes with Marco Zenati, then a surgery professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and CMU postdoc Alon Wolf. The three co-founded Medrobotics in 2005.
FundingMedrobotics Chief Executive Officer Samuel Straface says the company has raised more than $130 million, mostly from anonymous private investors.
Market The robot is intended to extend surgical options to a wider range of patients. It can, for example, remove otherwise inoperable tumors and reduce the need for radiation treatment for certain cancers.
Rival Flex’s chief competitor is Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robot. That machine’s inflexible instruments restrict surgeons to line-of-sight procedures. It costs $1.9 million to $2.3 million, vs. $980,000 for Flex.
Next StepsRegulators in the U.S., Europe, and Australia have cleared Flex for procedures entering the mouth, and a Medrobotics spokesman says the company applied for clearance for colorectal procedures on Aug. 19. David Goldenberg, surgery professor at the Penn State Cancer Institute, says Flex overcomes the shortcomings of linear surgical robots. With Flex, he says, “we can now treat disease in a minimally invasive fashion more effectively.”
To contact the author of this story: Michael Belfiore in at michael@michaelbelfiore.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeff Muskus at jmuskus@bloomberg.net.
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