December 6, 2013

Robotic surgery recall prompts “dear reporter” message from ex-hospital CEO

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Paul Levy, former medical center CEO, blogs, “Dear health care reporters: Look this way.”

He points to Bloomberg’s continued coverage of questions about robotic surgery systems, including this week’s news about “an urgent recall” because of systems stalling during operations.

And his note to reporters:

“…the recall affects 1,386 of the systems worldwide. You’d think that some health care reporter in one of those thousand-plus jurisdictions would write a story in his local newspaper about this issue–especially since hospitals have garnered gobs of publicity (and market share) in their localities when they installed the devices. For a start, how about questioning health systems that are offering the robot for OB/GYN surgery, notwithstanding advice from the ACOG president to the contrary. (Reportorial hint: Do a Google search on “robotic surgery for OB/GYN” and see who shows up in your city or town.)”

We’ve written about Bloomberg’s bulldog reporting on robotic surgery in the past.

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