Magnetic Robot Overlord

Let me ask you this first and then go into how this machine operates.

But I think the Da Vinci robot has very clearly shown that it can be done and that it can be performed to a point that it actually makes us better.

And because it is a direct interface to the tissue, I understand why people maybe tackled that first.

I think when I think of a robot for endovascular therapy, and I add the complexity of the intermediary, and I mean with this a catheter, the balloon, the stent, the wire, that is w- in the middle of the end organ and/or end objective area to treat, whereas the robot would put a stitch directly into an artery.

Like, the Da Vinci robot has a camera.

The camera sees w- you know, where the organ is, and you would just put a stitch with, with a very, um, you know, advanced, uh, mechanical system.

But in this case, that, that's where I see the, the complexity is you're, you're, you're, you're having-- you're losing a little bit of that tactile, uh, response.

You're, you're, you're having to add in, in, in the, in, in the, in the middle a bunch of, uh, changes of wires and catheters and ya- and yada, yada, yada, yada.

But I guess the, the, the, the question again, to repeat it, is d- does the fact that there is a robot that's approved that's made things better, A, does it-- is it a stimulus to, to pursue this? And then B, let's go into how this machine operates and how you guys figured out what components you needed to put together for it to make sense.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, to start with the first one, it, it indeed is a, is a sort of boost to know that, that one of the largest robotics companies in the world started with exactly the same issue, which is how can we...

Actually, it started in the battlefield, but the point was how can we allow surgeons to remotely treat wounded soldiers, now patients, uh, at an accuracy that's, that maybe even surpasses their own, their, their own skill? And, um, and it, it was, it was at first unheard of.

How can a, how can a robot be used to be better than the person that creates it, um, and, and save the life of a patient? And what I know the, the, the- One of the biggest, uh, challenges that they faced was, was not necessarily whether it is technically feasible or not, but whether the adoption is going to happen smoothly.

H- how can you ask a patient, uh, to make a choice between a surgeon and a robot? They will m- most surely choose the surgeon because of that human connection and the trust that they have.

Um, so I think, I think the fact that it, it...

they ended up to be so successful is definitely a, a good, um, basis for any med tech or robotic startup to pursue their vision.

Um, but if you're, if you're not focusing on whether the surgeon, first of all, and whether the patient can trust that this can actually save their life, then y- then, yeah, then, then you're gonna be stuck.

Um, so, and, and how we started then, to answer your second question, is while we understood from these interviews, from these challenges that, that a higher level of control is needed, not overall in the, in the, in the OR, but just on the tip of the wire.

'Cause if the wire, if the wire doesn't reach its des- destination, the, the intervention cannot succeed.

And so what we did is we, we integrated magnetic elements on this wire, and we pull it, we pull the tip from outside the body of the patient o- on a, on a robotic arm that has a magnet, a magnet at the end.

So it's a large outside magnet, uh, and then you just navigate the wire based on the patient anatomy.

And you can imagine that if, if you, as a s- as a, as a surgeon can feed the wire, but the robot can help with making these really tight and complex angles and sort of navigate an- around lesions intelligently, yeah, then it, then it's, then you can reach your, your lesion much faster.

So let, let me pressure test you here a little bit.

What...