MARLTON, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — A new robot is helping doctors at Virtua Health get to previously inaccessible places in the lungs and it's poised to have a significant impact on patient outcomes.
All it takes is an Xbox-style controller and GPS to navigate through the lungs like never before. Dr. Syed Riaz moved the robot through tiny airways in a simulated lung, following a mapped route on a monitor. He called it a game-changer.
"As we go out, the airways get smaller and smaller," he narrated during a trial.
Previously, doctors were limited in their ability to reach the outer portions of the lung because the passage ways were too tight, the turns too sharp.
"What we had noticed with other non-robotic techniques, although the plan is there, it’s just we had difficulty in execution," said Riaz.
The camera and tools equipped with it are a combination of human control and robotic intelligence that makes child's play out of finding and extracting samples from nodules which may contain cancerous cells.
"Before the navigation system, we were relying on the X-rays to get close to the nodules. Yield was pretty low, 40% to 50%. Then, this navigation system was introduced."
Now, he said, they can locate up to 90% of lung nodules and have them tested for cancer right away. This allows more patients to get the treatment they need sooner than ever before.