Revolutionizing Robotic Surgery with Revo-i

The MYOUNGJU Hospital that was founded under the mission of taking care of people in Yongin City now stands out as a “Health Protector” of the city within one year of its opening.

The hospital is now committed to taking care of all people in the country beyond Yongin. As a core hospital in Yongin City where the population is expected to significantly increase in the next 5 to 6 years.

In this interview, Myoung Ju Shin, the director of MYOUNGJU Hospital, took a look back over the last year and spoke about future plans. For the full interview in Korean, please click here.

The Hospital is at full capacity after just 1 year of opening, leading to earlier start of annex building construction

MYOUNGJU Hospital is 4 years old, including its preparation period, and is one of the few general hospitals located in Yongin where more than 1.1 million people are living. Yongin City currently has Yongin Severance Hospital, Kangnam General Hospital, Davos Hospital, and MYOUNGJU Hospital.

Even though MYOUNGJU Hospital is only 1 year old, it is the second biggest hospital in Yongin, following Yongin Severance Hospital.

Community interest in MYOUNGJU Hospital is high as patients requiring emergency treatment can receive treatment within their city without needing to head to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital or Ajou University Hospital.

Specifically, patients who have a heart or cerebrovascular system emergency for which the “golden time” is very crucial are showing a very positive reaction as they can receive proper treatment at MYOUNGJU Hospital with no need to go far.

As a result, MYOUNGJU Hospital’s capacity has been fully occupied within only 1 year from its opening resulting in the hospital having to accelerate the construction of an annex building.

“The original plan when hospital was founded was to start construction of an annex building near 2024. However, the hospital has already reached full capacity within only 1 year from its opening, so we are looking for a way to accelerate this construction plan as much as possible,” said Director Shin. “The location of the annex building will be near the hospital, and we have already secured two or three sites. We will start the construction as soon as possible.”

Increase in population in Yongin expected and a proactive response seems necessary for future changes

MYOUNGJU Hospital is operating more than 210 beds on average at the moment, which means 100% of the beds are in operation, except for the ICU. When the annex building is completely constructed, about 150 beds will be added.

Director Shin interpreted this situation as further proof of the lack of medical resources in Yongin. MYOUNGJU Hospital is planning to firmly secure its position in Yongin with a lot of efforts to proactively prepare for such a future change in the city.

“When the population of an area rapidly increases, the medical facilities and resources also need to develop accordingly. MYOUNGJU Hospital is actively preparing for such a future change in the city,” said Director Shin. “The annex building was initially planned to have more than 400 beds, but we thought it would be too much to accomplish within a short time. Therefore, we changed our plan to construct an annex building with 150 beds first and then add beds at the second stage.”

The number of medical staff at MYOUNGJU Hospital is also the largest after Yongin Severance Hospital, with more than 600 employees working.

MYOUNGJU Hospital experienced a dramatic increase in the number of outpatients within only 1 year from its opening, with 500 total cases of surgeries and procedures recorded every month.

In particular, the Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Centers have excellent medical staff so the Centers are performing the most monthly interventional procedures within Gyeonggi Southern Province, except for university hospitals. Additionally, highly skilled medical staff specializing in orthopedics, neurosurgery, and vertebral joints are also doing their best to treat patients.

Recognized for the best healthcare service for emergency patients

Director Shin’s endgame is aiming at a “higher and farther” point. His end goal is to have a university hospital that procures medical resources of good quality by itself.

Director Shin said he founded MYOUNGJU Hospital to make it a university hospital in the future, and he is doing his best to realize this by expanding the number of beds and securing medical staff.

Director Shin thought that “insufficient medical resources during COVID-19, the socially controversial issue of non-preferred departments, and the ER admission rejection problem in particular are all attributable to insufficient medical resources.” He said that he is “preparing as much as possible to address these issues of insufficient medical resources.”

MYOUNGJU Hospital, which is also actively communicating major university hospitals in the metropolitan area beyond Yongin, was designated as a local emergency medical center in July. Accordingly, MYOUNGJU Hospital is providing the best healthcare service for emergency patients in the community.

Additionally, it is actively working for the sake of education of medical institutions and medical professionals in the community.

Leading encouragement of robotic surgery by introducing “Revo-i,” a domestically developed surgical robot

In particular, the hospital is planning to promote robotic surgery by faithfully fulfilling its role as a pioneer in robotic surgery.

These promotion efforts will include the introduction of “Revo-i,” a new surgical robot that has been fully developed domestically by meerecompany with the ultimate aim to provide the best healthcare service.

“Before performing robotic surgery, the medical staff need an adaption period. We asked meerecompany for a model of Revo-i for training that is the same as the one for actual use, and we are currently conducting the training in the hospital,” said Director Shin. “After the training is finished with the training model, I think we can start performing actual robotic surgery with Revo-i for patients around September,” he expected.

He anticipates that actual implementation of robotic surgery will happen soon because the “Revo-i,” which the medical staff has been using for training, has a similar action mechanism compared to traditional surgical robots.

It is not common to install a large medical device for the purpose of training first. It clearly shows meerecompany’s strong will and robust philosophy to provide tailored consulting service for individual hospitals, even in the training program, to ensure high quality of education. Understandably, Director Shin is very satisfied with the tailored training program.

Regarding the reason why “Revo-i” was selected, Director Shin emphasized that it has “great potential for development and cost-reduction effect for both the hospital and patients.”

“Revo-i is the first domestically developed surgical robot. The most important factor to consider about using a surgical robot is that you need to replace the instruments once they expire. Revo-i requires a lower consumable replacement cost compared to traditional ones, which in turn reduces burden to patients. For this reason, I chose Revo-i that provides cost reducing effect for both the hospital and patients,” he said.

Director Shin said he would continue cooperation and implement any required supplementation based on active communication with meerecompany. Naturally, he would do this during the training program, too. He expects that more than 100 cases of surgery a year can be achieved once Revo-i is finally established at the hospital.

“My goal is to achieve 100 cases of surgery a year, considering that Revo-i is expected to be applied to general surgery, gynecology, and urology,” he said. “I think this goal will be reached quite soon once the surgery using Revo-i is firmly established.”

Leading role as a local base for robot surgery and further plan on foundation of a specialized robot hospital

Furthermore, Director Shin is planning to actively lead education on the robotic surgery with Revo-i outside the hospital as well.

MYOUNGJU Hospital is also a trainee at the moment but, probably around the end of year, the hospital will provide education on robotic surgery with Revo-i for medical professionals in the community hospitals and clinics, fulfilling its role as a local base.

Additionally, Director Shin will actively advise meerecompany on research and development and continuously maintain the cooperation, e.g., by providing ideas, to help with expansion of robotic surgery to spine, joint, brain and more areas though it is used in limited areas such as urology and gynecology for now.

He also said he would establish a separate, independent robot specialized hospital.

He further added that, while preparing for anticancer treatment, he would enhance human resources in the surgery department and create “a hospital in a hospital” to provide specialized medical care for the community so that a system is established where patients in the community don’t need to go a far way to other areas to receive a treatment.

Director Shin, who loves the community and its people and ambitiously dreams of leading the development of medical education and advanced treatment, including robotic surgery, is looking higher and farther to achieve his end goal.