Global Medical Robots Market Research - Scope and Challenges

Posted by Andrew Thomas on February 11th, 2019

Medical robots are one of the fastest growing segments in the medical devices industry. Preference for minimally invasive surgeries, a global shortage of medical personnel and a higher incidence of chronic diseases and physical disabilities is driving the global market for medical robots. The impact of medical robots on medical fraternity cannot be undermined.

According to a global medical robots market research conducted by Research on Global Markets, the global medical robot market will reach a value of USD 11.4 Bn. The global medical robots market report suggests that the market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 12.6% until 2023.

Research and commercial efforts are been focussed on the inevitable future, where robots will assist medical professionals in a variety of medical procedures. As we move forward, however, a number of challenges remain. One of the primary challenges faced by the medical robot market is the move towards systems that exhibit higher degrees of autonomy. The second challenge is the creation of robots that are able to replace or enhance physiology processes.

Autonomy in robotics is very challenging. Commodities and production lines can be designed to fit the capabilities of a robot, this, however, is not possible in the case of the human body. The autonomy of the medical robot is severely restricted and its contribution is limited to enhancing the skills of the surgeons. The robot acts as an extension to the hand of the surgeon, whose actions are continuously under the control of the surgeon. The Think Surgical’s Robodoc system performs pre preprogrammed and surgeon approved procedures based on medical images. A long term challenge is to enable a surgeon to supervise a set of robots to perform the routine procedure and only call on the surgeon to take care of the critical patient-centric procedures.

Miniature, multifunctional fully implantable robots are still in the process of development. Issues such as power efficiency, biocompatibility, and packaging are yet to be solved. Being able to anticipate and respond to any kind of failure, is one of the most critical challenges when it comes to automating any clinical task.

Implantable robotic devices are bionic systems being proposed to replace organs such as the pancreas, assist damaged organs such as the heart and promote growth such as of the esophagus. In order to advance in this field, several challenges need to address such as biocompatibility, adaptability, security, and reliability. Long term functionality of the device depends completely on its compatibility with the body it is being inserted into. The implants need to be built to support and react to changing situations such as exercise.as the power requirements of these devices are much higher than other medical devices such as pacemakers, the capability of wireless power supply will be crucial. The device must be adequately secured in order to prevent someone organs from being hacked.

The development of micro and nanorobots has shown promise and scientists have made significant progress in developing small devices that can move within liquid environments. Some of the challenges this field needs to overcome are the development of autonomous devices that are capable of self-targeting and the development of biodegradable and noncytotoxic microrobots.