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Wayne Poll
Medical Device, Laparoscopic and Robotic surgery Consultant
Wayne Poll, M.D., is a highly experienced medical professional with a strong background in urology, laparoscopic surgery, and robotic surgery. He is currently self-employed and open to new opportunities. Here are some key points about his career and expertise:
Background and Training
- Urology Training: Dr. Poll trained in urology at The Massachusetts General Hospital.
- Clinical Practice: He practiced urology for 22 years, focusing on minimally invasive therapies, including laparoscopic and robotic surgery.17
Professional Experience
- CEO Roles: Dr. Poll has served as the CEO of two venture-backed medical device companies, one of which he founded. Both companies were eventually sold.4
- Innovations and Patents: He has invented and commercialized several medical devices and holds over 19 patents.4
- Consulting: Currently, Dr. Poll consults for several US and EU MedTech companies and is involved in medical device development.7
Current Roles and Interests
- Medical Advisor: Dr. Poll serves as a Medical Advisor and Clinical Affairs expert for ePathScreen, LLC, a company developing AI-based cancer screening technology.4
- Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery Expertise: He remains active in the field of laparoscopic and robotic surgery, often participating in discussions and events related to these areas.56
LinkedIn Profile
Highlights
Here is what I noticed: I was doing 3-D robotic Prostates and 2-D Lap Nephrectomy, Switching back and forth, I never missed 3-D when doing a Nephrectomy.
I'm imagining that when DARPA, SRI, or whoever, was first developing the robot for telesurgery and battlefield use, it made sense to them that 3-D had to be better, and if the technology was available, then why not? This is exactly what I would expect an engineer to think, after all, when all this was first done and robotics were not even contemplated, it was impossible to get VOC feedback in this space. I don't blame them, it is intuitive that 3-D will be enabling, it just turns out it's not; but there was no way to know this beforehand.
Yet, once it is in the machine, it works for marketing, and it "sounds" like a core functionality, that at the very least differentiates it from laparoscopy.
However, 3-D in basic laparoscopy has not been successful in its commercial efforts.
Once ISRG was marketing around 3-D, then every robot company had to copy this capability.
These soft tissue surgical robots are not robots in any sense of the word. There is zero task automation or even programmed tasks. They are surgical marionettes, that transfer motions down a shaft from the wrists.
The average washing machine is more of a robot
The Origins of Robotic Surgery: one way to think about it.
Urologists were many of the initial adopters of MIS. In the mid-1980's along came three disruptive kidney stone technologies: Ureteroscopy, PCNL, and ESWL, all revolutionary.
ESWL as a standard of care was propelled by physician facility ownership, as extracorporeal lithotripsy was a cash cow if there ever was one. Next came ASC and imaging center ownership, and eventually lab and XRT. Physician entrepreneurship came alive.
ESWL for gall bladder stones was eclipsed early on by laparoscopic cholecystectomy, ushering in the modern era of laparoscopy.
Laparoscopic Prostatectomy was led by various French Urologists but this procedure was not scalable because only the highly skilled who performed LRP regularly could do it safely. The learning curve was probably around 50 cases. Specifically, suturing the dorsal vein, seminal vesicle dissection behind the bladder neck, and the anastomosis are almost impossible to master with straight sticks. Just too many difficult angles in the small space behind the pubic symphysis.
A small number of enterprising Urologists decided to try the DaVinci which up to then had little clinical penetration. With robotic end-effectors that "marionette" small wrist movements through end-effectors and allowed deep pelvic surgery in a confined space, and industry was born. LRP-robot was still difficult but you no longer had to be "Houdini" to safely offer the option.
There are good anatomic reasons why robotics is better in Prostate cancer surgery, but I don't see it in cholecystectomy. The unmet need there seems to be IR protection against common duct injuries, and you don't need a robot for that.
Eventually, small holes became "no-holes," and so we are back to ESWL, or its modern iteration, HIFU.
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