CurveBeam Connect: Robot Surgeons Aren’t Here, But Innovation Is

Dr. Chris O’Grady wants to see joints.

The Florida-based Orthopedic Surgeon who specializes in shoulder reconstruction and replacement has experienced first-hand how helpful it is to have 3-D images when he prepares to perform a procedure.

While O’Grady is much more familiar with shoulders than knees, he’s still excited to see Curvebeam’s upcoming entire lower extremity scanner, having seen how getting in-depth images before beginning a procedure can change the game.

“I really learned the importance of [understanding] the three-dimensional glenoid or socket of the shoulder. Where things have advanced to now is that, for every single shoulder replacement that I do, the patient gets a CAT scan, the 3-D images are then put into this proprietary software that really quite literally allows me to do the surgery long before the patient ever gets to the operating room.”

O’Grady has become an innovator in the robotic surgery space but said he still considers it more of a personal interest than something he frequently puts into practical application.

Robotic surgeons coming close to the same level of their human counterparts are still a ways off, but there is still reason to be excited about innovations in technology, O’Grady said, especially as information is being shared more widely than ever.

“What the future is going to allow are the surgeons that are kind of the onesy-twosy private practicing people in the middle of nowhere who don’t have the intricate systems that would allow them research assistance and all that sort of stuff, you might still have somebody there who does 1,000 knee replacements a year,” he said. “Well, now that person’s data will be able to get pooled into the ivory tower people running these massive studies that instead of having a few hundred patients can have tens of thousands of patients, involve many more surgeons and analyzing that data is very quickly going to solve some questions that I think people are still arguing on these podiums about.

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