Lung Cancer Diagnosing Robot Joins Others at Louisiana Hospital

Baton Rouge General (BRG) Hospital in Louisiana has introduced a robotic bronchoscopy system to automate lung cancer diagnosis.

Intuotove’s Ion robot was developed for surgeons to examine the lungs with minimal invasiveness, allowing them to collect tissue samples to catch potential signs of the disease early.

The design features a thin, flexible catheter that a surgeon can remotely control, enabling precise navigation around the small spaces inside the lung. It also allows surgeons to access and biopsy potentially cancerous nodules in the lung. 

“We built Ion on the belief that collecting lung tissue samples for biopsy could be safe and simple, even when nodules are small and located in the peripheral lung,” Intuitive said on its website. “Ion’s ultrathin, ultra maneuverable catheter allows clinicians to reach small lesions in all 18 segments of the lung. And its unprecedented stability enables the precision needed for biopsy.”

The Ion is just the latest robotic tech deployed at BRG. The hospital, which has its own robotics institute, is already using Intuitive HUB, a digital platform that helps care teams collaborate over video in real-time for consultation and case observations. 

BRG also has four robotic systems from Intuitive already in operation, and the hospital said surgery cases using them have grown by 70% over the last year. 

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The HUB platform can also integrate with the hospital’s surgery robots to capture and share imaging.  

“In the future, the platform will have artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, with the ability to track hand motion and instrument usage during a procedure to make surgery safer and more efficient,” the hospital said in a statement.