New Memic robotic assistant makes surgical debut in Miami-Dade

Science made further progress in Miami this week when Memic’s new robot assistant for surgery, the Hominis surgical system, performed the first US patient procedure using the robot for a transvaginal hysterectomy.

The laparoscopic-assisted transvaginal hysterectomy procedures were done at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital and the Women’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial Hospital. This procedure is done to remove the uterus through the vagina.

Memic, founded in 2013 in Tel Aviv and with a wholly owned subsidiary in Fort Lauderdale, has made a goal to transform robot-assisted surgery using advanced technology. The company developed Hominis, a robot that has humanoid-shaped robotic arms that have human level dexterity, super-human flexibility and 360-degree articulation. The robot arms do not just include robotic hands to grab onto tissue, but also has a shoulder, elbow and wrist joints that provide high dexterity not seen in other types of robotic medical technology.

These features have Hominis being able to “reach the unreachable” in surgeries in a way that leaves minimal visible scarring, minimal pain, reduced infection rate and faster recovery time.

Hominis was the brainchild of Dvir Cohen, chief executive officer and co-founder of Memic. He has been Memic’s leader since it was founded, and spent more than 15 years developing robotic systems in the Israel Ministry of Defense.

Mr. Cohen met with a professor around that time who had an idea of a robot that has fingers that can make it easier for surgeons to grab different tissues. As time went on, Mr. Cohen had the idea that instead of just fingers it will be the entire arm. This is meant to mimic the motions and skills of a surgeon.

“I thought robotic technology should be able to provide minimal invasive surgeries,” said Mr. Cohen. “With our technology, these humanoid shaped arms. We can reach regions that are non-feasible to date. Therefore, facilitate a transvaginal access for the vast majority of patients.”

While Hominis focuses mostly on the gynecology field as a starting, Mr. Cohen says it is not a “one-trick pony.”

“As of today, we are moving forward to other fields as well with general surgery, etc.,” he said. “But the main reason we decided to focus on gynecology is because of enabling nature of our technology in that field.”

Hominis is the first and only FDA-approved surgical robot in this field and with natural orifices transvaginal access.

“When we developed the technology and we came to the FDA to show them our system, technology and what it enables they told us that they cannot compare us to anything out there in the field,” Mr. Cohen said, “not from a technology point of view, and from access point of view we cannot compare to anything out there because everyone else is doing abdominal surgeries. We are the only one who facilitates natural orifices with no visible scars.”

Hominis is meant to be considerably more affordable in than other robotic systems in hospitals. The company is teamed up with hospitals, partnering with different surgeons from the hospitals to work with affordability of the system.

“The main benefit of our system, because of technology based on shoulder, elbow and wrist, the robotic control system is actually the fraction of the size, therefore a fraction of the cost, than other robotic systems,” said Mr. Cohen. “We can enable surgical robots into hospitals that were bound to traditional robotic systems until now. We started to launch our system and we have various models to work with different partners in a much more economical friendly environment.”

Mr. Cohen says he is looking forward for Hominis to continue being used in South Florida and across the world as Memic plans on eventually being adopted worldwide.