Doctors can now perform robotic procedures from afar. What that means for rural Canadians

Even from a few kilometres away, Dr. Vitor Mendes Pereira is able to perform a critical diagnostic procedure, thanks to an internet connection and a remote-controlled robot. 

“Every minute counts,” Pereira told The Current guest host Rebecca Zandbergen.

“If I can deploy the robot and treat closest to where the patient is, that can save hours. And that is really the ultimate goal of this type of treatment.”

The team at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto has performed 10 brain angiograms — a procedure used to get detailed images of blood vessels in the brain — through this remote-controlled robot over a fibre-optic internet connection. 

But that's just the start. The same team hopes to perform a remote endovascular thrombectomy — a critical surgery to remove blood clots — via robot, for a patient about 500 kilometres away in Sault Ste. Marie.

While it still needs approval from Health Canada, if performed, it would be the first time endovascular thrombectomy was performed remotely in the world.

It's an advancement that doctors say could have a positive impact for stroke patients in rural parts of Canada, and across the globe.

From his control room, Pereira is able to perform the angiogram by using the robot to maneuver a catheter through the patient’s arteries and veins. The entire time, Pereira can talk to a team in the operating room alongside the robot and patient.

“Communication is very important on every step that we are doing,” said Pereira.

Over the 10 surgeries, they’ve progressively increased the distance between where the surgery is happening, and where Pereira is working from.

At first, he was in the room. Then, he performed the procedure 12 metres away. In the most recent procedure in August, he operated on someone at St. Joseph's Hospital from six kilometres away in St. Michael's Hospital, both part of Unity Health Toronto. 

A chief concern when operating using the internet is that you might lose that connection. But Nicole Cancelliere, program manager and technologist at St. Michael’s Hospital, says there are safety mechanisms in place.

“Fortunately, because of all the testing we did … this is not something we experienced, but we would be able to adapt in a scenario if that was to happen,” she said.

Cancelliere says this development is personal for her. Her grandfather died from a stroke when she was young.