Human beings may or may not be known for a myriad of different things, but more importantly than the rest, they are known for getting better on a consistent basis. This progressive approach, on our part, has already got the world to hit upon some huge milestones, with technology appearing as a major member of the stated group. The reason why technology enjoys such an esteemed stature among people is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which ushered us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look up close for a second, it will become clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component was, in fact, what gave the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and consequentially, kickstarted a tech revolution. Of course, this revolution then went on to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after achieving such a monumental feat, technology will somehow continue to produce the right goods. The same has grown increasingly evident over the recent past, and assuming one new healthcare-themed development shakes out just like we envision, it will only make that trend bigger and better moving forward.
Johnson & Johnson has officially published a study, which claimed its Robotic Bronchoscopy System named Monarch can help physicians detect cancer at a faster rate than what is considered to be the norm right now. To understand the significance of such a development, we must acknowledge how all the non-RAB options for bronchoscopy require a trade-off between effectiveness and complications. You see, while transthoracic needle aspiration usually produces a high diagnostic yield, this method also has high complication rates, complications that nullify the given advantage by making it harder to determine a patient’s stage of cancer. On the other hand, electromagnetic navigation does have low complication rates, but it is able to generate very low diagnostic yields. So, how Johnson & Johnson’s brainchild solves such a conundrum? Well, launched in 2018, Monarch brings to the fore a minimally invasive approach and robotic assistance, thus birthing a mechanism where doctors can seamlessly reach distal parts of the lungs that were previously much more difficult to access with conventional bronchoscopes. The same was evident in the newly-published study which evaluated the system’s diagnostic yield and sensitivity for malignancy when used in a community setting. Deploying the system across Franciscan Health, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, and Spectrum Health, the study found that Monarch system reached the targeted lesion in 98.1% of cases, boasting a mean procedure time of 43.1 minutes. The researchers also witnessed an over 15% improvement in overall diagnostic yield compared to traditional bronchoscopy. With enhanced means to determine the truth, fewer patients have to wait around and let their cancer get worse. Coming back to the system’s knowhow of conducting the whole operation quickly, it took total number of transbronchial biopsy procedures from 35 in 2018 to 199 and 246 in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
“As robotics and digital technologies continue to prove their safety and efficacy, we have great opportunity to improve surgical workflows and reinvent the way patients experience treatment. We’ve now seen in real-world settings that robotic-assisted bronchoscopy is changing the way physicians are approaching suspected lung lesions, which may lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment,” said Adrian Whitford, president of the Monarch system at Johnson & Johnson’s medtech division.
Understood to be the first multispecialty, flexible robotic device to be marketed for use in bronchoscopy, Monarch is now working at full throttle in more than 180 hospitals. This massive footprint means physicians have performed more than 35,000 bronchoscopy procedures with the system since its launch, a number which should look to get bigger under the light of J&J’s latest study.
Mind you, there are other similar systems available on the market, like Intuitive Surgical’s Ion platform. However, Monarch sets itself apart on the back of its ability to provide vision throughout the procedure. Furthermore, to this day, it remains the only robotic solution that can be used in both bronchoscopy and urology.