India has 70,000 hospitals, of which about 25000 are multi-specialty hospitals with around 150 beds and above. These hospitals perform traditional surgeries. About 140 robotic surgery systems which are more precise and comfortable have been introduced in India. A global market leader from the US da Vinci sells robotic surgery systems all over the world. It is managed by Intuitive Surgicals. There are other firms — J & J and Medotronic.
If in cardiology patients, robotic surgery is used, the patients could return home the next day and 50 per cent leave the hospital in two days. The patients would be back to work or playing golf in about a week to 10 days.
In traditional cardiac bypass, the surgeon cuts open sternum or the breast bone. Robotic surgery is minimally invasive. It reduces the average stay in the hospital. da Vinci units have been used for over 10 million procedures across the globe. Still, even in the US, the penetration level of robotic surgery is just 30 per cent. The issue is access and affordability. Around 300 million surgical procedures — both robotic and non-robotic — take place around the world per year. The figure is likely to reach 590 million by 2030. Many surgeries could shift to robotic systems if there is access.
Around 50-60 per cent cardiac procedures could be done robotically. It will reduce blood loss and will have faster recovery. The mortality rate in robotic cardiac surgeries is only 0.7 to 0.8 per cent.
SSI Mantra, an Indian company founded by a US-returned cardiac surgeon, has set up manufacturing facility for robotic systems here in India.
They have a tie-up with Motherson Group who will make up the components, and SSI Mantra will assemble them. They have purchase orders from the hospitals, and would be able to sell the robotic systems in double digits. They expect to sell 100 systems per year very soon and in next five years around 2000 systems.
The cardiac surgeon has set up a team of 100 people with a facility of 30 thousand sq.ft. in Gurugram. Here they assemble components from vendors. Some components such as drives and motors are outsourced from abroad.