Would you be surprised if we told you that Isaac Newton had a theory about robotic surgery? You ought to be. But then again, we’re not talking about the legendary father of Physics. We’re talking about an orthopaedic surgeon who practises out of his clinic-home in Mylapore, who has the same name.
Dr Isaac Newton Rajkumar was the person who first organised an international conference on Computer Aided Surgery (CAS), way back in 1998. “That was a very long time ago thambi,” says the surgeon with a thick moustache and a quick smile. On Saturday, he is to be presented a Best Doctor Award by the TN Dr MGR Medical University, for four decades of work in orthopaedics.
And though he was a pioneer of several complex procedures related to bones, it was his obsession for computers and technology that took him to the pinnacle of recognition. “It was in 1994 when I saw the first robotic orthopaedic surgery at a University in Germany. Immediately, I decided that we should try and do this in India,” he recalls.
Soon after, he set up a firm to develop software for imaging, protocols, step-by-step surgery detailing and other technicalities and hired some of the brightest minds. His plan was to bring down the robotic arms and apparatus, but run it using software developed indigenously. “If we develop it ourselves, it would have cost less and reached the middle and lower classes as well,” he reasons.
The conference was a radical success at that time in Chennai, as robotic surgery was seen as a whole new revolution — not that too much has changed now, almost 15 years after.
Unfortunately, disaster struck and funding issues crippled Dr Newton’s dream, “We had to shut down by 2000, as we were unable to sustain ourselves, though our work was cutting edge,” he reminisces. Over the last year or so, hospitals in the country have begun announcing the success of robotic ‘hands-free’ techniques now available to the people of India. And for someone like Dr Newton, his dream has come full circle as he watches the technology he once tried to popularize, gain momentum, here in Chennai. “There’s a long was to go before it’s commonly accessible to the public,” he feels. And when does he feel it will be truly accessible for all?
“At least 2030,” he prophesises and adds as a caution, “I come from a generation where we diagnosed with our senses and books. I hope that surgeons don’t become so reliant on robotic surgery that they lose the skill in their hands. After all, no machine is perfect,” he concludes.
Robotic surgeons would do well to listen to this law of Isaac Newton.
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