Google teams with Johnson & Johnson on surgical robotics

Johnson & Johnson announced last week that its Ethicon subsidiary will work with Google to create a minimally robotic-assisted surgical platform. Ethicon makes products such as sutures and endocutters and supports a variety of surgical specialties. The goal of the collaborative effort is to integrate medical-device technology with robotic systems, imaging technology, and data analytics.

“For more than 60 years, Ethicon has developed products and technologies that have transformed the way surgery is done,” said Gary Pruden, worldwide chairman, Global Surgery Group, Johnson & Johnson, in a press release. “This collaboration with Google is another important step in our commitment to advancing surgical care, and together, we aim to put the best science, technology and surgical know-how in the hands of medical teams around the world.”

In the Wall Street Journal, Alistair Barr and Joseph Walker write, “The surgical robotics effort aims to integrate Google’s expertise in computer science, advanced imaging, and sensors into tools that surgeons use to operate. Real-time image analysis could help surgeons see better and software could highlight blood vessels, nerves, or the edges of tumors that are difficult to see with the naked eye, Google said.”

Barr and Walker add that the partnership could offer competition to Intuitive Surgical, maker of the da Vinci robot. They quote Paige Bischoff, an Intuitive Surgical spokesperson, as saying, “This announcement is just the latest confirmation that computer-assisted surgery continues to grow to the point that others can no longer sit on the sidelines.”