REVO

meerecompany's Revo-i surgical robot has achieved 1,000 cumulative cases of surgery. Additionally, more than 500 surgical cases using Revo-i were performed last year, and more hospitals started adopting Revo-i.

meerecompany recently had an interview with Director Kang Hyon Song (urologist) of the Robotic Surgery Center of the Korea Cancer Center Hospital. He also participated in the 43rd Société Internationale d’Urologie (SIU) Congress that was held from October 11th to 14th. There, he provided a presentation titled: “Robotic Prostatectomy with Revo-i.”

In this interview, Director Kang Hyon Song discusses the atmosphere of the symposium at that time, and the interest in Revo-i from medical professionals.

How many cases of robotic surgery have you performed so far?

I celebrated the achievement of 100 cumulative cases of surgery early this year, and I’m expecting it will be more than 200 cases at the end of this year. It’s not very easy at the beginning when you start using a new device because not only patients but also medical professionals prefer performing surgery using familiar equipment. Given that situation, I worked hard and thankfully achieved 100 cases of robotic surgery early this year. I guess I can achieve 200 cases by the end of the year.

I expect more than 100 cases will be achieved by early December in urology alone. In any hospital, the number of robotic surgery cases increases very slowly in the beginning of adoption. Then, it speeds up as we get familiarized and more people get to know it. So I expect about 130 cases can be achieved by the end of this year in urology alone.

Do you think the speed of the number of cases will increase?

For the Korea Cancer Center Hospital, it is not very speedy compared to other private hospitals because it is a public hospital. Many of our patients visiting the Korea Cancer Center Hospital still expect that they will be receiving laparotomy. The surgery trend has totally switched to robotic surgery, but many patients still do not prefer it because of the cost issue. The reason is that the robotic surgery is still not eligible for health insurance benefits, even though Revo-i certainly reduces burdens to patients compared to traditional products used in other hospitals. I believe more patients will benefit from robotic surgery if it becomes eligible for health insurance benefits.

How many cases of surgery using Revo-i do you expect to achieve this year in the Korea Cancer Center Hospital?

We performed 110 cases by November in last year, so I suppose we’ll achieve about 130 cases by the end of this year. That’s a conservative estimation, though.

This is not a big number compared to the “Big 5” hospitals in Korea, but it should be noted that many of the “Big 5” are private while the Korea Cancer Center is a public hospital. As previously mentioned, many patients visiting the Korea Cancer Center Hospital hope to have laparotomy

Please could you briefly tell us about your Revo-i surgery presentation at the SIU Congress?

It was an honor for me to have a chance to give a presentation in the SIU. I was invited to the SIU to introduce a surgery using Revo-i, and I gave a lecture in the congress. I think the reason I was there was because many surgical robots are appearing today in the market, in addition to the da Vinci. Revo-i is the leading product in South Korea, so they wanted me to introduce it.

Also, I think I may have been given the honor to give a presentation on the Revo-i because the Korea Cancer Center reached a stable period by achieving more than 100 cumulative cases of surgery this year. This figure is mainly based on high-difficulty cancer surgeries, thanks to the benefits of robotic surgery, and this led to great interest in Revo-i.

Surgeons tend to be quite conservative. They tend to only use what’s familiar to them. This is because their work, treating patients, is closely related to patient life, so they’re trying to take extra care. So, we demonstrated the performance of surgery using Revo-i in the SIU to surgeons, showing them that high-difficulty surgery is feasible in a safe and appropriate way with Revo-i. It was a really good opportunity to share Korean robotic surgery technique and show that Revo-i is such a good product to the global medical professionals. Particularly, I believe it greatly increased interest in Revo-i among surgeons around the world.

Was the response to Revo-i positive?

I had lots of practical questions about Revo-i after the lecture. In particular, there were many questions about what process is required to adopt Revo-i and how it should be operated. There were high interest and questions specifically from countries that already understand the benefits of robotic surgery and hope to introduce it, but they are still hesitant due to the cost issue. Countries in Asia, Middle South America, and Europe, especially East Europe, in particular showed great interest. Apparently, some countries have already adopted surgical robots, but then withdrew adoption because of high cost and expensive maintenance issues. So, these countries were very interested in Revo-i since it allows performance of high-difficulty surgeries with reasonable cost.

Have you seen the possibility that the use of the Revo-i can grow?

Yes. Many of the surgeons attending the congress asked about the maintenance cost of Revo-i and what surgeries Revo-i can be used for. Revo-i is offered for a lower price compared to traditional products and also reduces the maintenance cost by about 40%. I found that the participants were quite surprised at the fact that robotic surgery is feasible for such a low price.

I could quite confidently show performance of the surgery using Revo-i in the SIU. One of the reasons why I could do this was because it was greatly improved over the 2 years after its introduction to the Korea Cancer Center Hospital. Both meerecompany and the Korea Cancer Center Hospital invested a lot of effort to realize this improvement. The system, software, and instruments were all enhanced. The operation even became more delicate and refined, greatly improving compared to the initial version. The current version of Revo-i has been stabilized.

When a new device is introduced, both medical staff and the company have to work hard together until it settles down. Revo-i initially had some areas for improvement, but now it shows great performance for a satisfactory price. It is also expected to be continuously upgraded.

Considering that it is a domestic product, it not only offers cost-effectiveness but it also contributes to domestic technology development. In this regard, I think meerecompany is greatly contributing to the development of Korean medical technology.

Do you think the interest in Revo-i has increased?

Yes. I see lots of people visit the Korea Cancer Center Hospital and see Revo-i surgeries before making a decision about introducing Revo-i. Also, many surgeons observe surgeries performed in the Korea Cancer Center Hospital for educational purposes, even after it’s been introduced.

Foreign countries are showing increased interest in Revo-i as well. In this year, people from Philippine, Thailand, and Middle South America countries visited the Korea Cancer Center Hospital. I personally saw and felt for myself the increased interest in Revo-i among the countries that have just begun adoption of robotic surgery or that are in the middle of stabilizing their system. It seems that countries around Uzbekistan are showing greater interest since the Revo-i is making great achievements in Uzbekistan.

How many departments in the Korea Cancer Center are operating the Revo-i?

4 departments, including urology as the main department, Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, General Surgery and OB/GYN, are operating the Revo-i. Urology accounts for the biggest part of overall surgery cases.

What are the responses toward Revo-i among the medical staff of departments other than urology in the Korea Cancer Center Hospital?

Luckily, their thoughts are not very different. All of us care about and encourage each other. We all work hard together as we keep developing our expertise and improving, just like the Revo-i. Consequently, we are getting better through the experience from more cases.

I believe the Korea Cancer Center Hospital played a major role in making Revo-i what it is today.

The responses we get from medical professionals who are using the Revo-i in medical institutions are very important. Another important thing is the trust between the company and medical professionals. For users to continuously use a product, there needs to be feedback to support its continued use.

Is there anything new you want to try with Revo-i?

I’m performing all surgeries with Revo-i these days. My interest for the future is wider distribution of Revo-i and sharing my experience in surgeries using Revo-i with more medical professionals. Considering that the Revo-i will keep developing, I’ve been continuing communication with the meerecompany R&D staff.

How do you communicate with the company regarding areas of improvement for Revo-i?

I frequently communicate with the engineer of meerecompany. They quickly catch the point of an improvement request and immediately apply it to the next surgery. After it’s implemented, I can certainly feel the improvement.

What is your plan of development at the Robotic Surgery Center?

Although it’s just “Robotic Surgery Center” at the moment, I’m thinking about expanding it to a “Research and Training Center” someday. It would do the testing, etc. of other domestic medical devices, including Revo-i. Specifically, the goal of the center is to comprehensively deal with all activities, including research, development, testing, and even clinical application, related to surgical robots in an integrated manner.

Do you have any advice for meerecompany?

I think they’re doing well now as always. Both meerecompany and I suffered many difficult situations in the beginning, so now we always try to understand and help each other. And now we are at the stage of heading toward evolvement. We are sharing and communicating many thoughts, both good or bad, based on our trust.