World’s first robotic remote surgery performed with 5G help at extreme altitude

Doctors in Nagqu, a mountainous city in China located at 4,500 meters above sea level, performed a groundbreaking robotic surgery—the world’s first robotic urological surgery at extreme altitude.

A team of doctors successfully performed a remote surgery in Tibet at 4,500 meters above sea level, leveraging 5G technology to control surgical robots from a mind-boggling 4,000 km away.

Two hospitals, thousands of kilometers away, were connected for a pioneering surgery.

Professor Liu Zhiyu’s team in Liaoning Province collaborated in real-time with Dr. Wang Yunlong’s team in Xizang, bridging the 4,000 km distance to successfully perform the procedure.

Due to Nagqu’s high altitude, every aspect, every single step in the procedure, was nothing less than a challenge: the stability of the robotic essentials, the speed of the 5G transmission, and even the doctor’s skills to perform under such harsh weather conditions were the main challenges.

To make the procedure smooth and successful, the two hospitals partnered with the network providers, running countless tests and performing simulations to make sure the robots and 5G networks operated error-free in such extreme conditions.

Before the teams performed live surgery, they had spent weeks studying the patient’s case history, thus designing a customized surgical plan and rehearsing the procedure to perfection.

Dr. Wang, one of the surgeons who performed the world’s first robotic surgery, said, “From a medical perspective, this represents a major breakthrough in 5G remote robotic surgery.”

Now Dr. Wang and his talented team hope that in the days to come, the experience gained will pave the way for 5G remote surgeries in even more complex and challenging environments—and eventually will revolutionize the healthcare delivery in the world’s remotest regions.