Fernando da Silva, who lives in the southern African nation of Angola, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March.
Three months later, he underwent a procedure to cut out the cancer from a surgeon who has done tens of thousands of similar procedures.
But the doctor performing the surgery was 7,000 miles away — in Orlando, Florida.
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Da Silva was the first patient of a groundbreaking human clinical trial approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to test transcontinental robotic telesurgery.
“We’ve been working on this really for two years,” Dr. Vipul Patel, the medical director of the Global Robotic Institute at Orlando’s Advent Health, told ABC News after completing the surgery. “We traveled the globe, looking at the right technologies.”
ABC News’ medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton was granted exclusive access to the remote surgery in a report that aired June 16 on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis.
Prostatectomy, a surgical procedure that removes part or all the prostate, has more recently been done with a sophisticated robotic surgery system.
Instead of scrubbing into the operating room, surgeons operate on patients via a multimillion-dollar robot with enhanced visuals and nimble controls.
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Using a robot allows for the procedure to be less invasive, more precise and typically comes with a faster recovery time.
While surgeons are often near the patient they are operating on, Patel and his team were eager to test whether the surgery could be done long distance using fiber optic cables.
“I think the humanitarian implications are enormous,” Patel said. “Internationally, obviously, there’s so many underserved areas of the world.”
Patel also pointed out that rural areas within the U.S. could benefit by helping surgeons learn new procedures from a distance or helping patients from a distance if complications arise during surgery.
“Emergency room physicians will have technology that can be remotely accessible to surgeons, maybe even in the ambulance, where people can get remote interventions if they can’t make it to the hospital,” Patel said.
Patel had his surgical team in the operating room in Angola and were prepared for any potential issues, in case they arose.
“We made sure we had plan A, B, C, and D. I always have my team where the patient is,” Patel said. “So, in case something happened with” the telecommunications, “the team would just take over and finish the case and do it safely.”
Patel said he plans to submit the data from the surgery back to the FDA for teams there to review in the hopes he will be able to do more telesurgeries.
“It was a small step for a surgeon, but it was huge leap for health care,” he added.
