Robot” target=”_blank”>Rehabilitation robot is a medical robot that assists the human body to complete limb movements and realize functions such as rehabilitation treatment and rehabilitation nursing. It is a combination of industrial robots and medical robots. Its research runs through rehabilitation medicine, biomechanics, Mechanics, materials science, robotics and many other fields have become research hotspots in the field of international robotics. Among the three types of robots in the medical field, rehabilitation robots are located between surgical robots and medical service robots.
Recently, according to the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 18 departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Central Cyberspace Administration jointly issued the “Action Plan for Further Improving Product, Engineering, and Service Quality (2022-2025)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”), which proposes to “improve the intelligence of rehabilitation aids such as wheelchairs and walking robots”.
There is a large gap between supply and demand. From the perspective of the demand side, rehabilitation robots are mainly aimed at rehabilitation patients: stroke (50%), spinal cord injury (10%), and sequelae of fractures (40%). The aging of the population has increased the probability of disability, and the age structure of the disabled is an upside-down pyramid. As of 2021, the total number of people in need of rehabilitation in my country will reach 460 million, of which the number of patients with musculoskeletal diseases will be 320 million. In the same year, the number of disabled people in my country will exceed 85 million, and basic rehabilitation services still account for a small proportion.
In 2019, there are 16,000 active rehabilitation physicians and 14,000 therapists in my country, that is, there are 1.2 rehabilitation physicians per 100,000 population, while in developed countries, there are 30-70 rehabilitation physicians per 100,000 population, and the penetration rate is dozens of times different. As the product of the combination of robots and medical technology, rehabilitation robots have attracted much attention from the market. However, the development of rehabilitation robots in my country is relatively late. There are currently more than 10,440 rehabilitation medical institutions for the disabled in China, but less than one-third of them can provide rehabilitation training.
“The benchmark of the surgical robot industry is the foreign Da Vinci robot. In comparison, there is no domestic manufacturer that can match it. It takes time for technological breakthroughs and market cultivation.” Lu Hanchen, director of Gaogong Robotics Industry Research Institute, told Caijing.com.
He believes that surgical robots need to solve the problem of stability and reliability, which requires the blessing and protection of deep technology, which is the basis for building doctors’ trust; on the other hand, surgical robot companies need to solve the problem of ease of use.
Surgical robots were originally a medical project that provided medical protection for astronauts. Doctors can use the video imaging system, sit next to the machine to operate the system, control the robotic arm, and perform surgery on patients remotely. Surgical robots have become more and more widely used in the medical industry in recent years because of the clearer field of view, more flexible operation of the instrument arm, and no vibration.
The use of robots for surgical operations has become increasingly popular. In the United States alone in 2004, robots successfully completed 20,000 surgical operations ranging from prostatectomy to cardiac surgery. When using robots to perform surgery, the doctor’s hands do not touch the patient. Once the location of the incision is determined, the robotic arm equipped with cameras and other surgical tools will perform actions such as cutting, hemostasis and suturing. The surgeon only needs to sit on the console, usually in the operating room, to observe and guide the work of the robotic arm. It is reported that the technology will allow doctors to operate on patients on the other side of the world. The most common robotic surgery performed today is prostatectomy. Some surgeons also use robotic systems called da Vincis for heart surgery, obstetrics and birth control. In 2000, robots performed 1,500 surgeries, and in 2004, robots performed 20,000 surgeries.
The new blue ocean of medical robots
The research and development of surgical robots is a gold-swallowing behemoth, and the funds raised by Szerui’s IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board are also mainly used for research and development. According to the prospectus, Sizersui plans to raise 2.029 billion yuan, of which 1 billion yuan will be used for surgical robot research and development projects, 600 million yuan will be used to supplement working capital, 327 million yuan will be used for surgical robot industrialization projects, and the remaining 102 million yuan will be used for For marketing network construction projects. “my country’s endoscopic surgery robot market is still dominated by Da Vinci, and our domestic surgical robots account for very little.” Duan Xingguang, a professor and doctoral supervisor at Beijing Institute of Technology, and an expert in the key research and development plan of intelligent robots of the Ministry of Science and Technology, pointed out in a public event.
China’s surgical robots are in the stage of shifting from relying on imported surgical robots to technological innovation based on domestic players, and they are optimistic about the future development potential of domestic surgical robots in the long run.