Thoracic surgeons treat health problems associated with the chest cavity, including the lungs, the chest wall, and the oesophagus. Yedikule Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Education and Research Hospital in Istanbul has been treating chest diseases since 1970 and performing chest surgeries since 1980.

Dr. Bugra Sezen is currently an Associate Professor of Thoracic Surgery And Chest Diseases at the hospital, and in June 2021 he tried using smart glasses from a competitor with limited success. That’s when a major healthcare company recommended Rods&Cones.   

The Challenge

“I like the Rods&Cones service because we have the chance to take the operating sites outside the OR and the endoscopic system.”

– Dr. Bugra Sezen, Associate Professor, Yedikule Thoracic Surgery And Chest Diseases

Recent advancements in medical technology make it possible for thoracic surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgery on the chest cavity. Thoracoscopy or video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) uses a small video scope, together with small incisions, and specialist instruments, which help to improve patient outcomes and reduce post-operative pain. That said, some thoracic procedures are more suited to open surgery. 

The challenge for thoracic surgery experts like Dr. Bugra Sezen is how to effectively demonstrate their expertise to medical students and other healthcare professionals. 

The Solution

“I plan to use Rods&Cones to capture robotic surgeries – surgery that uses robotic hands.”

– Dr. Bugra Sezen, Associate Professor, Yedikule Thoracic Surgery And Chest Diseases

By using the remote assistance services, Dr. Bugra Sezen can share thoracic surgical techniques through webinars for residents and other academics at the university. He’s also driven to develop a wider culture of sharing best practices by encouraging expert surgeons from other university hospitals to share their experiences with his colleagues using Rods&Cones technology. 

One of the main advantages of the Rods&Cones kit is that he can ask questions whilst performing the surgery, and viewers can also change the cameras to get the best view of what is typically complex and deep procedures. 

Being able to share the view from within the operating room, the surgeon’s perspective, and the endoscopic camera, gives viewers the complete picture. Seeing the surgeon’s hands and what they are doing is also vitally important. 

By recording content captured by Rods&Cones devices, Dr. Sezen and his colleagues can create training videos. It also helps to broaden the reach of surgical expertise and reduces the need for surgeons to travel to observe and learn from other surgeons about particular procedures. And learning can also include things like how to position a patient or the most effective way to arrange surgical tools.  

As the founder of the first surgery-assisted robotic arm surgery in Türkiye, Dr. Sezen is using remote surgical assistance technology from Rods&Cones to share his cutting-edge techniques with a wider audience. The way he sees it, in the future surgeons will use the technology to improve collaboration on more complex procedures, sharing insight and advice from anywhere in the world.