[Photo Credit to Unsplash]

Fukuoka University Hospital in Japan recently achieved a groundbreaking milestone by utilizing SpaceX's Starlink satellite network.

They successfully conducted a remote surgery on a pig, located about 1000 km away from the hospital.

This historic event took place on the 14th of last month in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, situated in the northeastern part of Japan's main island, Honshu.

The hospital employed low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for the operation.

This decision was driven by the need for high-speed communication, which is crucial during medical procedures.

LEO satellites orbit much closer to the Earth compared to geostationary satellites.

This close proximity reduces communication delays, making them ideal for real-time, precision-demanding tasks like remote surgeries.

The operation involved the removal of the upper left lobe of the pig's lung and was successfully completed in approximately two hours and forty-five minutes, with minimal blood loss and no complications.

The use of Starlink is part of a larger effort towards improving medical services in remote areas.

These areas often suffer from poor access to quality healthcare.

By utilizing fast and reliable satellite communications, remote surgeries could become more widespread.

This would greatly benefit rural and underserved communities worldwide.

Fukuoka University Hospital’s initiative is just one example of how high-speed satellite technology can revolutionize fields outside of traditional telecommunications.

It opens up possibilities for conducting complex medical procedures in places where it was previously not feasible.

Japan has been a leader in embracing remote healthcare.

Since 1997, the country has allowed limited remote medical practices initially in isolated island regions, and expanded these services nationwide by 2015.

Concerns regarding patient concentration in major hospitals or with well-known doctors have been mitigated by restricting remote services to certain medical fields like diabetes and hypertension.

The global remote healthcare market is expected to grow significantly.

Emergen Research predicts it will increase from $84 billion in 2022 to $450 billion by 2032.

This growth is indicative of the expanding scope and potential impact of remote medical technologies.

In a related development, the U.S. company Sovato announced last July the successful use of its platform for preclinical demonstrations of remote-assisted surgery (RAS).

Sovato specializes in developing platforms that enable remote surgeries and procedures.

Sovato’s platform integrates comprehensive solutions for managing remote robotic-assisted surgeries.

It provides curated fiber-optic networks, clinical workflows, data, and support infrastructure necessary for safe and scalable remote surgical programs.

The platform allows surgeons and medical teams to perform surgeries over long distances, using systems like the MIRA surgical system.

This system is able to facilitate remote operations by enabling control of surgical instruments with low latency and integrated joint cameras for full situational awareness.

Remote surgery is poised to address the needs of over 83 million Americans who must travel for routine procedures.

It promises to expand high-quality surgical care to over half of the global population currently without access to suitable treatments.

This advancement in surgical technology allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures remotely.

Systems like MIRA, which are compact and easy to transport, could make remote surgery a more feasible option for many hospitals.

In conclusion, the successful use of Starlink for remote surgery by Fukuoka University Hospital demonstrates the immense potential of integrating advanced satellite technology in healthcare.

This innovation not only enhances medical service delivery but also ensures that high-quality care is able to reach even the most geographically isolated regions, breaking down barriers to healthcare access globally.