#2 - Treating liver cancer with surgical robotics - Lucien Blondel - Quantum Surgical

Lucien Blondel is one of the leading figures in the field of surgical robotics, having already led the development of several platforms supporting orthopaedic, spinal and brain surgeries.

Together with Quantum Surgical, which he co-founded alongside Bertin Nahum, Fernand Badano and Sophie Roca, they are addressing liver cancer through a new robotic platform supporting ablation procedures.

Under the name of “Epione” (the goddess of care in the Greek mythology), it represents a breakthrough in this field, not only supporting surgeons in the execution of the ablation procedure, but also in the planning phase up to the validation of the surgical act.

Through a combination of cutting-edge image processing technology, computer vision and haptics, Epione is on its way to revolutionize interventional oncology and improve access to liver cancer ablation, for patients and for surgeons.

We exchanged with Lucien on his background, what brought him to surgical robotics, the specificities of this field, his role in leading the technical development of Epione, and its underlying promise in the cure of liver cancer.

Timeline:

00:00:00 - Lucien’s introduction and background in surgical robotics

00:04:51 - How he got into this field and what drove his interest to it

00:07:43 - The uprising of surgical robotics and key developments over the past years

00:14:16 - Identifying the right disease area and type of intervention

00:20:02 - The type of cancer targeted by Epione and the surgical act it complements

00:22:49 - Enabling percutaneous ablation beyond interventional radiologists

00:25:02 - Applications of Epione beyond liver cancer

00:27:20 - Epione’s components and workflow

00:32:51 - Synchronizing the patient’s breathing to the robotic arm positioning

00:35:43 - Synergies between Epione and other platforms previously developed by Lucien and his team

00:38:22 - Moving towards fully autonomous surgical interventions

00:41:20 - The meaning behind “Epione”

00:43:11 - Suggested resources to dig deeper into surgical robotics

00:45:34 - The “Why”

What we also talked about with Lucien:

• ROSA
• Epione
• Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery
• Versius Surgical Robotic System
• Da Vinci Surgical Systems
• ExcelsiusGPS
• Gustave Roussy Institute
• Mayo Clinic
• The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery

If you want to know more about Quantum Surgical, we invite you to consult their website: https://www.quantumsurgical.com/

You can contact Lucien through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]

If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]