Ellie Gabel investigates how robotic and remote surgeries are revolutionising healthcare, enabling doctors to perform complex procedures from thousands of miles away with remarkable precision, speed, and safety.
Surgeons traditionally stay in the same room as the patients and touch them directly during operations. Surgical robots have upended that norm, allowing doctors to perform surgeries while thousands of miles away.
They typically manipulate joysticks from those remote locations, affecting how the machines work for them. What are some recent examples, and why do they matter?
Surgeon delivers prostate cancer treatment from 7,000 miles away
Although robot-assisted procedures involve on-site teams monitoring patients, technological progress has enabled primary surgeons to perform the job from other locations. For example, a surgeon in Ohio operated on a man in the United Arab Emirates.
The procedure featured a surgical robot that sent high-intensity, ultrasonic waves to target a prostate tumour during an ablation treatment. A urology department chair sat with the patient in Abu Dhabi, launched a software programme and transferred control to the remote surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.
Thanks to an undetectable lag of only 120 milliseconds, the professional had a seamless experience. He reported even forgetting the distance between himself and the patient. The man is now cancer-free, and estimates suggest the surgery extended his life by at least a decade.
The achievement is also notable because those associated with the project designed it as a real-world case to prove surgeons can perform these operations over landlines.
It required two years of planning and testing, plus finding a patient willing to undergo the new approach. That dedication paid off, and the procedure is the first known instance of someone operating like this.
This surgery used MRI scans and a robotic platform to examine the prostate in real time. This determined where to aim the ultrasound to address the tumour with minimal effects on the surrounding healthy tissue. The surgeon could also adjust the robot arm’s path if the patient moved.
Many people live in areas with few or no specialised healthcare options. Surgical robots open opportunities by bridging gaps between providers and patients.
Retinal surgery outcomes improve with robotics
Because surgical robots may perform procedures on small or delicate body parts, bulky builds are often infeasible for these applications.
Engineers have developed options that work without external servo drives, allowing designers to optimise mass and volume. Developments such as these make advanced healthcare methods safer and more appealing to those needing them.
Research published in 2025 illustrates why many design teams must make surgical robotics increasingly smaller and more capable. It also emphasises why these innovations have a place in on-site work.
A team built a new robotic surgery device for retinal procedures for surgeons to use in operating rooms. It mounts to a patient’s head and scales down the surgeon’s movements to match the tiny target site.
It also compensates for hand tremors, which even the most experienced surgical professionals can experience due to fatigue, anxiety or awkwardly shaped tools.
The robot can execute movements as tiny as 1 micrometre, which is particularly helpful on retinal cell layers less than 1 millimetre thick. Professionals interact with a haptic interface to control the machine.
Besides offering greater precision than conventional methods, this innovation increases patient safety, allowing them to receive the procedures under intravenous sedation instead of general anaesthesia.
Healthcare providers cannot yet use the device commercially, but experiments indicate its promise. The experts who developed it believe the robot will help surgical professionals keep up with rapidly advancing vision treatments, giving patients a better quality of life.
This progress could also enhance remote surgeries by highlighting new avenues to pursue when designing advanced equipment.
Telecommunications advancements enable long-distance success
Robotic surgeries have become mainstream, with over 1,700 machines from one brand installed globally in healthcare systems. The progress continues as interested parties explore remotely performed operations.
These offerings support patients who cannot travel long distances to visit surgeons due to costs, condition-related risks and other challenges. They also connect local doctors with those who are distantly located and possess specialised knowledge about complex cases.
Robust communication networks become instrumental in these options, allowing surgeons to work from afar and experience virtually no latency. Another 2025 case concerned a doctor in Brazil performing several inguinal hernia repairs on a patient in Kuwait.
Those associated with the procedure partially attribute its success to a high-tech communications network. It facilitated digital connectivity with a 199-millisecond response time. The Guinness Book of World Records lists this feat as the longest transcontinental robotic surgery.
The recipients of an associated certificate mentioned that their achievement showcases the possibilities when advanced medicine and technology merge.
An exciting future for patients and providers
Medical procedures can feel scary to those who need them, but these advancements illustrate how remote and robotic improvements can make operations safer and more effective.
When surgeries go more smoothly, many patients can anticipate faster recoveries and a lower likelihood of complications. Surgeons also benefit by bringing their expertise to more people, optimising care and removing previously persistent barriers.
