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Status of Robotic-Assisted Surgery (RAS) in the Department of Defense (DoD)
Samuel Grasso1, Joshua Dilday1, Brian Yoon1
1The Department of General Surgery, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, TX.
Military Medicine
|June 20, 2019
Summary
Robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) adoption in the Department of Defense (DoD) shows rapid growth, with general surgery leading cases. Military implementation lags civilian rates but expands faster, possibly due to a younger surgeon demographic.
Area of Science:
- Surgical Technology
- Military Medicine
- Healthcare Trends
Background:
- Robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) has seen significant growth since 1999.
- Gynecologic procedures dominate civilian RAS, with general surgery comprising only a quarter of cases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) trends in the Department of Defense (DoD) align with civilian patterns.
- To analyze the adoption and utilization of RAS within military treatment facilities.
Main Methods:
- Reviewed 6,204 RAS cases across DoD Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) from January 2015 to September 2017.
- Recorded surgical specialty, case volume, and surgeon data for each robotic procedure.
- Compared DoD RAS trends with available civilian data.
Main Results:
- Robotic surgery implementation and case volume increased significantly in DoD MTFs.
- RAS case numbers grew by approximately 10% quarterly from 2015 to 2017.
- General surgery accounted for the majority of RAS cases in the DoD, unlike civilian trends.
Conclusions:
- DoD MTFs adopted RAS later than civilian counterparts but experienced a faster adoption rate.
- A younger military surgeon demographic and different productivity pressures may influence RAS use.
- The prevalence of general surgery in DoD RAS warrants further investigation due to its divergence from civilian data.
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