Surgical Robotics Technology
Medical device company, TransEnterix, Inc., has today announced that the Toshima Hospital of the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Hospitals Corporation has entered into an agreement to lease and utilize a Senhance® Surgical System.
“We are excited to partner with Toshima Hospital to build its Senhance Digital Laparoscopy Program,” said Anthony Fernando, President and Chief Executive Officer at TransEnterix. “Japan has become one of the fastest growing markets for Senhance in terms of both placements and clinical cases given our attractive per procedure economics, comprehensive reimbursement coverage and ability to add digital capabilities to the strong foundation of laparoscopy. Our recently inaugurated training center in Japan will further accelerate our growth in the region.”
Toshima Hospital is a comprehensive inpatient and outpatient facility with 415 inpatient beds, and is affiliated with the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. The hospital is part of the six hospital network operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Hospitals Corporation to provide excellence in healthcare and promote the welfare of the citizens of the Tokyo metro area.
“Our hospital is dedicated to offering the best possible surgical care that is part of a comprehensive program for the members of our community,” said Dr. Masayuki Ando, Director of Toshima Hospital and Clinical Professor of Surgery at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. “We are committed to utilizing the most advanced technology where we feel it can positively impact our ability to care for our patients. The Senhance SURGICAL System is an advanced minimally invasive surgical tool that our surgeons will utilize to offer excellent advanced surgery at a reasonable cost.”
“Advanced minimally invasive surgery requires precision, superior visualization, and advanced instrumentation,” said Dr. Yusuke Kinugasa, Chairman of Colorectal and Proctology Surgery at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. “We selected the Senhance Surgical System because of its ability to build upon our excellent laparoscopic surgery program and add advanced visualization and digital capabilities.”
The Senhance Surgical System is the first and only digital laparoscopic platform designed to maintain laparoscopic minimally invasive surgical standards while providing digital benefits such as haptic feedback, robotic precision, eye-sensing camera control, comfortable ergonomics, advanced instrumentation including, 3 mm microlaparoscopic instruments, and reusable standard instruments to help maintaining per-procedure costs similar to traditional laparoscopy. The Senhance Surgical System was approved for use by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) in 2019, and has the broadest procedural reimbursement of any abdominal robotic surgery platform in Japan, which applies to 98 benign and malignant laparoscopic procedures across general, colorectal, gynecologic, pediatric and urologic surgeries at reimbursement rates equivalent to traditional laparoscopy in Category A1.
Japan is the second-largest medical device market in the world, valued at over $40 billion annually, including over $5 billion in capital equipment spending. There are more than 8,400 hospitals in Japan, of which approximately 80% are private entities. Japanese laparoscopic penetration in surgery is among the highest in the world. The central government has implemented cost containment initiatives in recent years and has approached recent procedure approvals for robotics by establishing reimbursement at the same rate as traditional laparoscopy, which places a high emphasis on procedure cost to influence adoption.
