ForSight Robotics, an Israeli startup aiming to automate cataract and eye surgery, announced Tuesday that it raised $125 million to expand its precision robotics platform, Oryom.
The round was led by Eclipse Ventures, with participation from surgical robotics legend Fred Moll, co-founder of Intuitive Surgical, and Moshe Shoham, a Technion professor and pioneer behind multiple robotics companies including Mazor, which was acquired by Medtronic for $1.6 billion, Forbes reports.
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Inside ForSight's Mission To Solve The Global Cataract Crisis
Forbes says that more than 4 million cataract surgeries are performed each year in the U.S. alone. Yet, according to a World Health Organization report, over 1 billion people globally suffer from preventable vision loss. As the population ages and the number of ophthalmologists declines, a gap is forming that traditional medical systems can't fill.
"There is no human way to close the gap as we see it," Dr. Joseph Nathan, ForSight co-founder and chief medical officer, told Forbes. "Robotics will have to take over."
Cataract surgery is a highly precise procedure that involves operating within extremely small spaces, requiring steady hands and dexterous control, according to Forbes. ForSight says its Oryom platform is designed specifically to handle the complexity and consistency of ophthalmic procedures using AI-based algorithms, computer vision, and micromechanics to enhance surgical precision and reduce the physical strain on surgeons.
Over the past year, more than two dozen ophthalmic surgeons have used the platform to successfully perform hundreds of procedures on animal eye models as part of the system's development and testing phase. Forbes reports that ForSight has specifically tested its robotic system on porcine eyes due to their close anatomical similarity to human eyes, a common method used in ophthalmic surgical training.
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The company says it has yet to perform surgery on a human patient, but expects to begin clinical trials by the end of the year. Early conversations with the Food and Drug Administration are already underway, and the new funding will carry the company through its regulatory process.
ForSight is Powered by the Titans of Surgical Robotics
ForSight was born out of Israel's Technion Institute, where Shoham, Nathan, and co-founder Daniel Glozman combined decades of expertise in medical engineering, research and development, and commercialization. Shoham's previous students have gone on to lead Medtronic's robotics division and build multi-billion-dollar exits. Moll and Shoham, often called "the godfathers of surgical robotics," now advise the company strategically, Forbes reports.
"There is only one procedure that is done more than cataract surgery and that is blood drawing," Moll told Forbes. "As far as real surgical technique [that could be helped by robotics], cataract surgery is at the top of the list."
With its third-generation prototype complete, ForSight is already preparing to expand its platform's capabilities beyond cataracts. Forbes says that future use cases include retinal procedures, glaucoma treatments, and complex eye surgeries that currently only a handful of surgeons in the world are qualified to perform.
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Can this Cataract Robot Solve the Vision Surgeon Shortage? ForSight Thinks So
ForSight's Oryom system provides a potential answer to a looming global health crisis. According to the company, there are only 31.7 ophthalmologists and 14.1 cataract surgeons per million people globally, highlighting a significant gap between demand and surgical capacity. This surgeon shortage, combined with rising rates of preventable blindness, suggests that millions may not receive timely care.
A 2020 study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, further confirms that lower-income countries average just 3.7 ophthalmologists per million people, compared to 76.2 in high-income nations, underscoring the disparity in access to eye care worldwide.
By automating precision eye surgery, ForSight is betting on a future where access to vision care is no longer limited by geography or availability of human doctors. If successful, the company may become the Intuitive Surgical of ophthalmology.
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