Remote Telerobotics in Interventional Radiology: Development, Procedures, and Challenges

People living in rural communities face significant health care disparities, having a tremendous impact on routine and emergent clinical care. A paucity of specialists, such as interventional radiologists, in rural and global isolated areas contributes to these disparities. The impact of telemedicine for remote clinical care has now been well established and is commonplace. A logical evolution of telemedicine is telesurgery and teleprocedural care. Robotic surgery is well established and now being applied in interventional radiology. These technologies have the capacity to democratize specialty care, literally extending the reach of interventionalists and surgeons to make procedural care available to these underserved communities. There is a clear need to develop future approaches that can address a large and growing rural health care disparity. Technical requirements and details of clinical workflow must first be understood and optimized.