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The global adoption of robotic surgery has advanced rapidly in high-income countries, yet its diffusion remains limited in resource-constrained settings due to financial, infrastructural, and educational barriers. As surgical technology evolves, there is an urgent need to promote countries’ equitable access to robotic platforms worldwide.
The aim of this study was to analyze global strategies employed to promote the diffusion of robotic surgery, with a particular focus on overcoming barriers in resource-limited settings, and to provide practical insights that can guide its equitable and sustainable implementation.
This study is a multinational, policy-oriented integrative review conducted under the guidance of the Research Committee of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract in the USA (SSAT). The study integrates a bibliometric analysis, a literature review, and expert insights from diverse healthcare environments. Contributions were gathered from SSAT members.
Robotic platforms are predominantly concentrated in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia, with the USA hosting nearly 60% of all installations. Research output is similarly skewed, with few countries and institutions producing most clinical trials. Key barriers to diffusion include high costs, lack of infrastructure, limited training capacity, regulatory hurdles, and resistance among surgeons. Facilitators include public–private partnerships, philanthropic support, technology transfer, simulation platforms, and curriculum integration by professional societies.
Achieving global equity in robotic surgery requires coordinated action across research, education, clinical practice, policy, and infrastructure. Global cooperation and innovation in implementation strategies can help bridge the current disparities and promote safe, cost-effective surgical care in underserved regions, improving patient outcomes.
The development of didactic means to create opportunities to permit complete and repetitive viewing of surgical procedures is of great importance nowadays due to the increasing difficulty of doing in vivo training. Thus, audiovisual resources favor the maximization of living resources used in education, and minimize problems arising only with verbalism.
To evaluate the use of digital video as a pedagogical strategy in surgical technique teaching in medical education.
Cross-sectional study with 48 students of the third year of medicine, when studying in the surgical technique discipline. They were divided into two groups with 12 in pairs, both subject to the conventional method of teaching, and one of them also exposed to alternative method (video) showing the technical details. All students did phlebotomy in the experimental laboratory, with evaluation and assistance of the teacher/monitor while running. Finally, they answered a self-administered questionnaire related to teaching method when performing the operation.
Most of those who did not watch the video took longer time to execute the procedure, did more questions and needed more faculty assistance. The total exposed to video followed the chronology of implementation and approved the new method; 95.83% felt able to repeat the procedure by themselves, and 62.5% of those students that only had the conventional method reported having regular capacity of technique assimilation. In both groups mentioned having regular difficulty, but those who have not seen the video had more difficulty in performing the technique.
The traditional method of teaching associated with the video favored the ability to understand and transmitted safety, particularly because it is activity that requires technical skill. The technique with video visualization motivated and arouse interest, facilitated the understanding and memorization of the steps for procedure implementation, benefiting the students performance.
Developed by Surya MKT