Shanghai, China – On September 17, 2022, the MicroPort^® Special Session of the First World Design Cities Conference (WDCC) was successfully held at the China Shipping Pavilion, in which Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as MicroPort^® MedBot^®) presented its flagship products, Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot and Honghu ¹Orthopedic Surgical Robot. The two products perfectly integrate surgical robotics technology and aesthetics of industrial design, showcasing the important achievements of MicroPort^® MedBot^® as a trailblazer of Chinese-developed surgical robots in leading the design trend in this field with its innovative endeavor.

The first World Design Cities Conference (WDCC) was organized by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government from September 15 to 18, 2022 at Huangpu Riverfront. With the theme of “Vision in Perspective”, the conference comprises two key areas of the main exhibition and the new product launch, focusing on the cross-border integration of design, innovation-driven effect and ubiquitous empowerment. Based on its nearly 20,000-square-meter space, the exhibition housed more than 110 brands in 300 exhibits, with experts from various industries invited to hold several summit forums to discuss hot topics in industrial design, fashion design and architectural design.

Through the platform of the WDCC new product launch, Mr. Yu Liu, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of MicroPort^® MedBot^®, and relevant product managers shared the development course of the company, the design concept, functional innovation, social influence and awards of Toumai^® and Honghu, which was highly hailed by tens of thousands of visitors online and offline, making the event a great hit.

At the launch, Mr. Yu Liu, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of MicroPort^® MedBot^®, delivered a speech entitled “Explore unknown, Shaping the era of super intelligent surgery”. He said that after eight years of rapid development by riding the tide of “era of surgical robots”, MicroPort^® MedBot^® has grown into a large group with ten business entities and a global leader in surgical robotics innovation. In the design of surgical robots, MicroPort^® MedBot^®, based on years of experience and relentless exploration in clinical trials thanks to its constant innovation, has created first-class surgical robots that are independently developed and designed, deeply integrate the actual needs of doctors and patients, and combine the aesthetics of industrial design with clinical application needs.

As a Chinese-developed endoscopic robot independently developed by MicroPort^® MedBot^®, Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot was approved by the National Medical Products Administration in January 2022 and is the first and only four-armed laparoscopic surgical robot self-developed by a Chinese-developed company and approved for marketing. Toumai^® has been the winner of the Red Dot Design Award of Germany, the Gold Medalist of A’design Award and Competition, the laureate of SAIL (Super AI Leader) – the highest honor of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2022, etc.

In terms of innovation in design, Toumai^® is composed of a surgeon console, a patient cart and a vision cart, with every single detail designed to conform to functional utility. The doctor’s console applies ergonomic principles and combines 3D stereoscopic high-definition images generated from the image processing platform with the main control arm of multi-degree freedom, so as to cater to the operating habits of different doctors and help them extend their visual scope and hand-use, thereby striking a perfect balance between the doctor and the robot. When designing the appearance of the patient cart, their psychology during operation has been taken into full consideration by elaborately improving the base and elevation column as well as the beveling of the front arm instruments, whose exquisite exterior details provide patients with a sense of reliability, stability, and security.

As for product features, thanks to its client-server remote operation technology, Toumai^® allows doctors to perform surgeries in a seated position away from the surgical console, thus reducing their burden. Toumai^® boasts clinical advantages such as three-dimensional realistic surgical fields and highly flexible wrist surgical instruments, and has showcased its effectiveness and safety in clinical trials, making it widely applicable in all kinds of surgeries, including urologic surgical procedures.

In clinical practice, in June 2022, the Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot successfully completed two urology ultra-long-distance surgeries across a distance of nearly 5,000 km from Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang to Nanjing, Jiangsu, realizing the world's longest distance 5G-based remote robotic surgery to date, greatly helping to solve the surgical technology bottlenecks in more hospitals in remote and less developed areas and enhanced the feasibility of the implementation of highly difficult and complex surgeries. From June to August in 2022, Toumai^® successfully completed 50 difficult surgeries in Shandong Provincial Hospital within two months, whose average number of monthly surgeries was on a par with the international level of similar mature products. The stable performance of Tuomai^® in research and clinical projects shows that the “Intelligent manufacturing in China” has come with state-of-the-art products and taken the lead in the world.

As the first and only Chinese surgical robot that has been approved by FDA so far, Honghu Orthopedic Surgical Robot has won over 100 honors including the iF Design Award of Germany, the Silver Dove Award of Shanghai, and the A’Design Award of Italy.

With regards to innovative design, Honghu consists of the surgical platform and the navigation console, whose function and appearance exemplify the product design and aesthetics of orthopedic surgical robots at their best. The combination of the robotic arms, the optical navigation device and the navigation planning software extends the surgeons’ hands, eyes and brain, assisting them to achieve “accurate calculation, accurate seeing, and accurate cutting” in orthopedic surgeries, thus effectively addressing the clinical bottlenecks of over-dependence on the operator’s experience, and the inability to achieve standardization and reproducibility. The original six-in-one cutting block design resolves the clinical barriers of too many surgical instruments and too complicated operation in traditional surgeries and better fits the operation habits of clinicians, which leads to higher surgical efficiency, less patient bleeding, and shorter patient recovery cycle.

As for product features, Honghu boasts technical advantages such as precise operation, efficient collaboration, safety protection and high compatibility. Before the operation, the system’s planning system can help the surgeon develop a personalized plan for prosthetic implantation based on the patient's CT scan data and prosthetic model data. During the operation, it helps surgeons operate in a precise, secure, and efficient manner based on its accurate positioning in the surgical planning, alignment technology, and self-developed highly flexible and lightweight robotic arms to achieve rapid osteotomies. MicroPort^® Honghu can avoid the medullary positioning in traditional surgeries and there is no intramedullary rod implantation during the operation, which can reduce surgical injury and bleeding, improve postoperative line of gravity of lower limbs, decrease complications, and help patients have a quicker recovery.

In clinical practice, in early 2022, Honghu embarked on a trip to Yunnan to wield the power of 5G surgical robots to the southwest border. During the 57-day journey, it reached nine prefecture-level cities, including Diqing on the plateau and Yanjin County known as the narrowest county in China, delivering advanced medical technology to over 50 patients in 14 hospitals. This bird soaring high in the sky has brought more opportunities and hopes to numerous patients in remote areas to live a better life.

By virtue of the platform of the first WDCC, the new product launch manifested the practical action and determination of MicroPort^® MedBot^® to help step up the continuous innovation and development of the Chinese-developed surgical robot industry for the benefit of more patients via its products that integrate design aesthetics, clinical value, and excellent performance, which triggered the attention of the medical, design, and media sector on the commercialization of Toumai^® and Honghu. Looking into the future, MicroPort^® MedBot^® will continue to be committed to design innovation and technology application to provide more efficient and comprehensive robotic intelligent surgical solutions for society, so as to fulfill the corporate vision to “Make Surgery Easier, Safer and Less Invasive”.

¹ The registered trademark of Honghu is named “SkyWalker” in abroad, which is in the process of application in USA, completed registration in EU and other countries and regions.