A few days ago, with Professor Tian Wei of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital as the leading expert, the orthopaedic department jointly developed by Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Beijing Tianzhihang Medical Technology Co., Ltd.Robot“Tianji” was officially launched. This is also the only robotic system in the world that can perform full-segment spine surgery. Since then, orthopedic surgery in my country will accelerate into the era of intelligence and precision.
Robots as assistants challenge “restricted areas”
In 2015, with the help of “Tianji”, Professor Tian Wei, president of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, and his team successfully challenged the “restricted area” in the field of spinal surgery in the world – completing the upper cervical deformity known as the “life center” The operation was successfully performed on a 43-year-old male patient with severe atlantoaxial congenital deformity combined with a depressed skull base, with an error of less than 1 mm. To the shock of the global medical community, this is the world’s first robotic-assisted upper cervical spine surgery.
In the global medical field, spine surgery has always been the “hard bone” in the orthopaedic surgery community. “The higher the human body goes, the thinner the spine, the higher the requirements for the precision of the operation, and the more complicated and dangerous the operation will be,” said Xing Yuzhu, secretary of the board of directors of Tianzhihang. Previously, other orthopedic robots that have been approved for sale in the world can only assist in the completion of orthopedic surgery below the thoracolumbar segment. It is precisely because of the extremely high technical difficulty and risk that the 43-year-old male patient had nowhere to seek medical treatment.
Today, “Tianji” has obtained highly stable “hands” and high-precision “eyes” through intelligent technology, and is far ahead of similar products in the world with sub-millimeter-level operation accuracy.
“Medical-industrial-enterprise” co-creates the “Holy Hand” of Orthopedics
It may be unimaginable for ordinary patients to hand over life-threatening complex operations to robots. But more than ten years ago, as the top orthopedic medical force in the country, doctors from Beijing Jishuitan Hospital discovered this urgent need in clinical treatment.
With the support of national science and technology projects, top doctors from Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and engineering experts from Beihang University started to explore the independent innovation research of orthopedic surgery robots in China. In the later stage, Tianzhihang, a high-tech enterprise that can help “technology” into “product”, joined the Chinese orthopaedic surgical Robot research and development and industrialization team, and the “medical, industrial and enterprise” three parties came together.
Since then, such a peculiar scene has often appeared: in the orthopaedic surgery laboratory, next to the doctor wearing the surgical suit, there will be several engineers and technicians learning or giving technical guidance on the equipment.
In every clinical trial, the orthopaedic Robot has to compete with the best doctors to see if it can outperform the top doctors in various indicators such as the number of X-rays used, the operation time, the operation accuracy, and the number of guide needle adjustments.
Policy innovation accelerates the “landing” of cutting-edge technologies
It does not have a huge torso, but has a pair of flexible, multi-dimensional rotationmechanicalarm. On November 16 this year, the powerful “Tianji” officially obtained the medical device registration certificate issued by the State Food and Drug Administration, and obtained the key “pass” required for official listing. During the clinical trial, the previous generation product of “Tianji” has been used in more than ten hospitals across the country, with a total of more than 2,000 operations.
The joy of success did not make the Tianzhihang team forget the hardships of starting a business. Due to the extremely long payback period of the medical device industry, after the establishment of the company in 2005, it has “zero income” for five consecutive years. If there is a continuous lack of funds, the progress of research and development and the introduction of talents will be greatly affected.
At the critical moment, government support played an irreplaceable role. In 2010, held by Zhongguancun Development Group, the Beijing Municipal Government made a government equity investment of 20 million yuan in Tianzhihang to support the innovation and development of the enterprise. One year later, the company ushered in the first batch of orders, and the hematopoietic capacity gradually increased. Today, Tianzhihang has established orthopaedic robotic minimally invasive surgery centers in many hospitals and successfully landed on the New Third Board.
The Links: JZRCR-NPP01B-1 3HAC037682-001 IGBT
