Experts have estimated that 16.9 million lives, nearly one-third of all deaths worldwide, are lost annually from conditions requiring surgical care, according to the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. Around 320 million more surgical procedures need to be performed to close this gap.
Remote surgery using robotics could help alleviate this problem by allowing world-class surgeons to perform procedures from anywhere in the world. Remote surgical robotics require a complex interplay of robots, communication infrastructure, and real-time control systems.
Despite advances in the field, technical hurdles around the reliability, precision, and adoption of remote surgery remain. These challenges include latency and network reliability, AI-powered haptic feedback and precision, data security and privacy, system integration and scalability, and fail-safe system environments.
At the 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo, which will be on April 30 and May 1 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, attendees can learn about the cutting-edge technologies, such as AI and machine learning, that enable remote surgery. A panel will include insights from Darren Porras, the market development manager of healthcare at RTI, and Tom Amlicke, the technical director of robotics at MedAcuity.
The session on “Advancing Remote Surgery: Tackling Latency, Precision, and Security Issues” will also explore new solutions to the technical challenges that are slowing down progress. The talk will include a demonstration of an integrated multi-vendor system that uses commercial off-the-shelf software to process data from a remote controller client to a robotic arm. It will also illustrate how the system uses a data-centric architecture to protect itself against unauthorized access.
Meet the remote surgery experts
Porras brings over 20 years of experience in the medical device industry and product development. Prior to his current role, he was a program manager for surgical robotics at Medtronic. Porras has also held program management and software development roles at Philips Healthcare and Integra Radionics, spanning medical imaging, image-guided surgery, and cybersecurity.
Porras has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Duke University and a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Amlicke is a software architect and robotics systems engineer at MedAcuity with over 20 years of embedded and application-level development experience. He has been in a lead role on multiple robotics projects, overseeing the end-to-end development of mobile robotic systems and surgical robotics systems.
These systems are designed and implemented with model-based design (code generated from MATLAB and Simulink) or more traditional languages, such as C++, Python, C#, and Java. Amlicke has designed and implemented these systems using ROS, ROS 2, DDS, CAN, and other technologies.
More about the Robotics Summit & Expo
The 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo will bring together more than 5,000 attendees focused on building robots for various commercial industries. Attendees can gain insights into the latest enabling technologies, engineering best practices, emerging trends, and more.
Keynote speakers will include:
- Aaron Saunders, the chief technology officer at Boston Dynamics
- James Kuffner, CTO of Symbotic
- Aaron Parness, director of applied science in robotics and AI at Amazon Robotics
- Daniela Rus, director of MIT CSAIL
- Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, the founder and CEO of PSYONIC
The show will have more than 50 educational sessions in tracks on AI, design and development, enabling technologies, healthcare, and logistics. The Engineering Theater on the show floor will also feature presentations by industry experts.
The expo hall will have over 200 exhibitors showcasing the latest enabling technologies, products, and services that can help robotics engineers throughout their development journeys.
The Robotics Summit also offers numerous networking opportunities, a Career Fair, a robotics development challenge, the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Gala, and more.
Co-located with the event is DeviceTalks Boston, the premier event for medical technology professionals, currently in its tenth year. Both events attract engineering and business professionals from a broad range of healthcare and medical technology backgrounds.
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