Luna Innovations today declared their intention to continue development work with Intuitive Surgical for the year 2011. Luna Innovations has been working with Intuitive Surgical since 2007 by integrating its fiber optic-based shape sensing technologies into Intuitive’s medical robotic devices.
Intuitive ranks among the leaders in performing surgeries that are assisted by robotic mechanisms that are minimally invasive. Luna has fulfilled the development contributions as per the existing multi-year contract and the new contract will cover the work for 2011.
Dale Messick, who is the interim President and COO of Luna, feels that the extension of the contract vouches for Luna’s dedication towards the development of medical technology. Through this contract both Luna and Intuitive can exploit each others talent and take the quality of surgical procedures to greater heights. Messick considers the strengthening of their relationship with Intuitive as an opportunity to improve their technology, which in turn aids complex surgical procedures to give favourable results for patients.
Dave Rosa, the Vice President of New Product development at Intuitive confirmed their commitment in working with Luna. Rosa stressed that Luna’s expertise in advanced shape sensing and position tracking systems played a vital role in the joint development efforts.
The shape sensing system developed by Luna assists in surgeries by providing live measurements that help in navigation through the body. Such position tracking systems require incisions having small surface areas on the body. Also the width of the optical fibers that help in navigation is extremely less, as thin as human hair, so the tracking is less cumbersome.
Source: http://www.lunainnovations.com/