Surgical Robotics Technology
Galen Robotics has announced Dr. Robert S. Langer, founder of 40 biotechnology companies, including Moderna, will join the company’s Board of Directors. He will assist Galen Robotics to advance and deliver a new, breakthrough generation of cooperative surgical robots while also launching Digital-Surgery-as-a-Service, a new shared-risk mode for hospitals to procure surgical equipment and utilize them more extensively.
Robert Langer is the most cited engineer in history and the fourth most cited individual in any field, having over 1,400 granted or pending patents and being the author of over 1,500 scientific papers. He is one of the 12 Institute Professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is one of three living individuals to have received both the United States National Medal of Science (2006) and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011). Dr. Langer’s research laboratory at MIT is the largest academic biomedical engineering lab in the world, with over $17 million in annual grants and involving over 100 researchers.
“I am pleased to join the Board of Galen Robotics and advance what surgical robots can accomplish, how they work and how widely available they can become,” said Dr. Langer. “To my knowledge, Galen is the first to launch a surgical robotic company-as-a-service. This reflects the type of new and innovative thinking around surgical robots and medical devices in general.”
Galen Robotics has been pioneering the development of a new breed of collaborative surgical robots for minimally invasive microsurgical procedures currently unaddressed by today’s surgical robots. The vision is to make a new breed widely available by changing their procurement from a large capital expenditure to an affordable, per-usage “as-a-service” model. These robots would also be able to capture and utilize digital information to promote continuous improvement of surgical technique and outcomes and the training of residents.
Galen Robotics was founded in 2016 to commercialize the research done in the Laboratory of Computational Sensing and Robotics of Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The company has been building from the works by Dr. Kevin Olds and Dr. Russell Taylor in the invention of the Robotic Microsurgical System at JHU. “We are beyond thrilled to have Dr. Langer join our Board,” said Bruce Lichorowic, president and chief executive officer, Galen Robotics. “His contributions to medical science are both profound and amazing. His vision, business know-how and insight will be invaluable to Galen Robotics moving forward.”
Source: Galen Robotics.
