BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Robots guided by doctors in a remote location through 5G wireless technology have completed major portions of three simultaneous orthopedic surgeries, the China Daily reported Thursday.
The whole process, monitored by specialists at a hospital in Beijing, was the first time three remote procedures were conducted at the same time, the newspaper said.
The surgeries took place in Hebei province, Tianjin Municipality, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Live images were transmitted to a team at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital as the robots executed their preset programming commands.
The robots have been designed to carry out many of the tasks, but others must still be done by doctors, such as implanting devices within bones.
"The combination of 5G technology with surgical robots is a huge technological advance that will help us share our skills with more patients in distant regions," Tian Wei, head of the hospital in Beijing and team leader, was cited as saying.
"People across society can now have access to top medical resources. In the future, using robots and 5G will be common. The medical community will be smarter," Tian said.
