The future is here: Polish doctors conduct Europe’s 1st remote surgery

Doctors in Poland have carried out Europe’s first telesurgical operations between hospitals nearly 300 kilometres apart, using robotic technology to perform procedures in real time, local media reported Saturday.

On Friday, surgeons from Poland’s National Medical Institute operated remotely from a hospital in the northern city of Gdansk on patients located at the institute’s facility in Warsaw, according to public broadcaster TVP World.

“This event opens a new stage in the development of telemedicine in Poland and Europe,” the institute said in a statement. “We’re not stopping – this is just the beginning. We have additional initiatives and ideas ahead of us, which will serve the well-being of patients and the development of modern medicine.”

Using the EDGE MP1000 robotic platform, Piotr Suwalski conducted a heart bypass — reportedly the first of its kind performed with this specific technology — while Pawel Wisz performed a prostatectomy during the same session.