Local hospital gets new robot

Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls may not be the biggest, but a new robot is putting them in the same league as the Huntsman Cancer Institute and the Mayo Clinic.

The Da Vinci XI is a new and improved version of their other Da Vinci.

Robotic surgery in general makes surgeries less invasive, and allows doctors to do more fine work in smaller spaces, but the XI goes above and beyond that.

Dr. Eric Baird, a general surgeon at Mountain View said, “We can sew easier and make smaller spaces, and the XI allows us to do that, but at a greater range of movement within the abdomen.”

Dr. David Chamberlain, also a general surgeon added that, “It’s much easier to use. I think any time you have a tool that’s easier to use, it’s better for everybody, and makes it ultimately safer for the patient.”

The robot is able to move in almost a full circle, making it easier to ensure a successful surgery, and thanks to the laproscopic cameras, the doctors can see the diseased tissue more easily, and make sure they get it all out.

Chamberlain said “It makes it so you’re right there in three dimensional vision, and you have wristed motion, and then you can sew, do all the meticulous dissections, and it gets us to the point where Mountain View Hospital is on the same level, as a whole, with all the other cancer centers of America.”

Since the doctors control the arms of the robots, it also makes it easier on them. “Everything we do with our hands, wrists, and different motion that we do, we mimic that motion out on the robot itself, and with what ever instrument were using.” Said Chamberlain.

The robot is also fully automated.

With a simple tap on the screen, the doctor or nurse can tell the robot what side it needs to be on and what major organ you’re operating on.

It then positions its arms by itself.

Mountain View is only the second hospital in Idaho to have one of these robots.

The other one is in Boise.