Vicarious Surgical: Shrinking the Surgeon

Cambridge, MA based, Vicarious Surgical combines surgical robotics with Virtual Reality to empower surgeons to conduct minimally invasive surgery accurately with improved visibility.

Vicarious aims to achieve the pinnacle of surgical robotics - To shrink the surgeon and put him/her inside the patient! The company plans to develop human-like surgical robots to allow surgeons to conduct surgery through a single micro-incision. The company’s technology is still under wraps but it would be interesting to follow the developments as the company’s vision can really redefine the minimally invasive surgery space.

Vicarious came out of the stealth mode in April, when it received a $16.75 million Series A investment from Khosla Ventures and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. According to Crunchbase, this is the company’s third funding round and this latest round brought the total funding to $19.8 million.

“Vicarious Surgical is using miniaturized robotics and immersive virtual reality to give surgeons superpowers, exponentially improving visibility and accuracy in minimally invasive surgery,” Innovation Endeavors founding partner Dror Berman. “This approach is poised to drive a super evolution in surgical care that will save lives.” (PR Newswire)

The use of Virtual Reality in the surgical field is getting crowded with several startups working on innovative technologies in the space. For example, Osso VR is developing software to create virtual operating rooms on VR platforms like Oculus Rift. The innovative use of VR in training surgeons on new and innovative surgeries can prove to be a boon for the healthcare industry. The expanding application base of VR will definitely result in safer surgeries with minimal effort in the future.