Picking up a $5 bill is usually an easy proposition, if it's with your fingers. Using a robot to do that can be a whole different experience.
Lee Health doctors recently showed that difference to a group of middle school students using two of the surgical robots that they use to care for patients at local hospitals.
Pulmonologist Dr. Shyam Kapadia showed the students how to use the robots, which were set up in a large trailer at Gulf Coast Medical Center.
“We have two robots here. One of them is our Da Vinci, which is our minimally invasive surgical platform. We also have our Ion robotic system, which allows us to get to the far reaches of the lung to detect lung cancer,” Kapadia said.
The students laughed and cheered as classmates used the Da Vinci robot to pick up the aforementioned $5 bills as well as rubber bands. Students used another robot to insert a scope into a model of human lungs.
“They love it," Kapadia said. "They think it's so cool that they're able to play with the robots, actual robots, not Lego robots, that they're used to playing with, but really understand the impact of what it means for them in the future."
Dr. Juan Ibarra is the program manager of robotic surgery for Lee Health. He emphasized that the robots appeal to students interested in more than just medicine.
"This robotic technology allows them to see what they can do in the medical field, but also they can do in engineering, in design, all this,” Ibarra said.
Zoey Teske, a seventh-grade student at The Crestwell School, tried the Da Vinci robot.
"You just like kind of have to move your hands. It was hard to move it. It kept freezing. And it was really hard.”
Kapadia said that Lee Health doctors have performed more than 20,000 robotic procedures -- 6,000 in the past year alone.
"These robots take care of people in a way that we weren't able to do 10 years ago. Before, we would have to make a large incision, as opposed to now, we can make really small holes and take care of the disease that's going on inside your body,” Kapadia said.
He is also passionate on educating kids about lung health and the effects of smoking and vaping.
“And why do you avoid that stuff?" Kapadia asked. "It causes cancer, right? And you want to be able to play with robots and not have one inside of you.”
