US surgeon makes history with world’s first remote surgery 4,000 miles away

In a groundbreaking moment for medicine, doctors from Scotland and the United States have successfully completed what’s believed to be the world’s first transatlantic robotic stroke procedure. At the University of Dundee, Professor Iris Grunwald, a leading interventional neuroradiologist, carried out a remote thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure used to remove blood clots after a stroke, on a human cadaver. Grunwald, who was physically based at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, operated a robotic system connected to a body located in another facility miles away. Just hours later, Dr. Ricardo Hanel, a neurosurgeon based in Jacksonville, Florida, used the same technology to perform the world’s first transatlantic remote surgery on a human cadaver in Dundee, over 4,000 miles (6,400 km