The first in China! The "Weihai-made" neurosurgery robot is about to "break the circle"
2024-08-08
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Shaobo Medical Technology (Shandong) Co., Ltd. is located in the Medical Equipment and Biomedicine Industrial Park in Gaoqu District. Recently, the reporter saw in the company that in the production workshop on the second floor, the company's flagship product, the disposable liquid transfer filter, was being produced at a busy pace; the workshop on the third floor had been inspected and accepted and would soon be used for the research and development and production of neurosurgery robots.
"This neurosurgery robot is the only medical robot in China with complete intellectual property rights, filling a gap in the industry!" said Hu Wuting, general manager of the company. They signed a school-enterprise cooperation agreement with the Institute of Artificial Intelligence of Tsinghua University in March, and have now developed the third-generation neurosurgery robot software system. It is expected to be initially finalized in September and installed and tested; the new workshop will be fully put into use in early October.
Staff are testing a neurosurgery robot.
In June 2023, Shaobo Medical conducted in-depth R&D cooperation with Tianjin Huazhi Computer Application Co., Ltd. and launched the latest upgraded version of the "king bomb" equipment - a frameless brain stereotactic instrument, filling the "gap" in my country's neurosurgery robots.
A host control system, a computer display, and a five-degree-of-freedom robotic arm constitute a surgical robot. These combinations may seem simple, but the technology contained in them is not simple. They have led the industry and broken through the "moat" of foreign technology. According to Hu Wuting, Tianjin Huazhi has been engaged in research and development and innovation in the field of neurosurgery for nearly 20 years. The "frameless brain stereotactic surgery system" is a product of the National 863 Project and won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2023, the latest upgraded version of the product will be launched, adding multi-target and multi-dimensional fusion registration functions, etc., and in-depth cooperation with Shaobo Medical will be carried out to layout and carry out product landing projects in hundreds of cities and thousands of counties across the country.
It is reported that the initial craniotomy required the doctor to observe the lesion with the naked eye. In the second-generation frame stereotactic surgery, the doctor planned the surgical path in advance according to the imaging data during the operation, and an operation took about 6 hours. The current third-generation surgical robot combines modern imaging technology and computer technology to gradually form neuronavigation technology. The average operation time is only 30 minutes, the positioning accuracy is 1 mm, and the wound is only 2 mm, which reduces postoperative complications and greatly reduces the pain of patients.
"This neurosurgery robot belongs to the third generation and is completely frameless. The doctor initially diagnoses the general location of the patient's lesion, puts a marker on it, and inputs the CT or MRI image data into the surgical robot's software system. The system automatically plans and navigates the surgical path, and the success rate of puncture point positioning reaches 99%." Hu Wuting said.
So far, Shaobo Medical has obtained more than 40 patents, and has 7 utility model patents and 13 invention patents pending. Shaobo Medical's advanced technology research and development capabilities have enabled it to stand out in the field of medical robots and quickly open up the market. From its launch to the present, about 130 neurosurgery robots have been used clinically in hospitals, covering 27 provinces across the country, and are basically used in the top three hospitals in China.
"We have completely localized the parts of the neurosurgery robot, which has ultra-high precision and extremely high stability. All core components are independently developed by our R&D team, and the underlying algorithms have undergone 20 million experiments." Hu Wuting said that the design of the five-degree-of-freedom robotic arm has broken the monopoly of foreign robots and truly achieved 360-degree coverage of the entire surgical process.
With continuous investment and technological accumulation, Shaobo Medical has entered a period of research and development harvest: the fourth-generation neurosurgery intelligent surgical robot will create the only intelligent surgical robot in China with a domestically produced supply chain. The prototype has been completed and the type inspection prototype is under development. It is expected to obtain the certificate in August 2026.
"According to the plan, the sales of disposable liquid transfer filters will cover 300 hospitals by the end of next year, with an output value of 50 million yuan. In 2025, neurosurgery robots will be mass-produced and are expected to enter 100 domestic hospitals, with a market share of 30%." Hu Wuting said that they will focus on cutting-edge technologies in the field of neurosurgery, optimize and improve the visualization of AI algorithms and navigation systems, make all accessories of surgical robots completely localized, significantly reduce manufacturing costs and hospital procurement costs, help high-quality medical resources sink to the grassroots level, and let more grassroots hospitals enjoy high-quality, low-cost, precise, efficient and easy-to-use neurosurgery robots. (Photo by Xie Jingwen, reporter of Hi Weihai Client)
