International breakthrough: Professor Giovanni Alessio, during the National AICCER Congress, performed a remotely controlled refractive surgery from the “La Nuvola” Congress Center on a patient at San Carlo Hospital in Nancy, Rome, assisted in the operating room by Dr. Scipione Rossi.  This innovative procedure was carried out thanks to the 4D Suite platform from iVis Technologies and the 5G connection provided by TIM.

Rome, March 11, 2024 – The first remotely controlled corneal refractive surgery procedure between two distant locations was successfully performed at San Carlo Hospital in Nancy, connecting the “La Nuvola” Congress Center to the Hospital via 5G during the national AICCER congress (Italian Association of Cataract and Refractive Surgery), which brought together over 2,000 ophthalmic surgeons from all over Italy for the annual update and discussion event.

The patient suffered from myopia and astigmatism, the most common refractive error worldwide. The technique had already been used last September at the Bari Polyclinic for the treatment of a corneal disease. In this case, for the first time worldwide, it was used to eliminate a refractive error. The laser treatment was customized, using Ray-Tracing technique, to remove corneal irregularities.

From the La Nuvola congress center, with a 3D viewer, Professor Giovanni Alessio (Full Professor of Ophthalmology Clinic at the University of Bari and Director of the Ophthalmology Department of the Bari Polyclinic) remotely controlled and monitored, in real-time, with the iVis Remote Control Station, the iRes®2KHz laser manufactured by iVis Technologies.

The patient was in the operating room at San Carlo Hospital in Nancy, a multidisciplinary hospital of GVM Care & Research, assisted by Dr. Scipione Rossi (Director of the Complex Operating Unit of Ocular Microsurgery of the hospital) team.

In the days leading up to the surgery, the patient underwent a series of diagnostic exams that, thanks to high-resolution images, allowed the determination of the extent of the pathology and the subsequent customized treatment.

The surgery was made possible thanks to TIM‘s 5G technology which, in collaboration with Ericsson, installed the infrastructure at San Carlo Hospital in Nancy and allowed to maintain an adequate transmission latency between the iVis Remote Control Station and the iRes®2KHz laser, to ensure perfect synchronization between remote commands and action. The 5G connection provided by TIM was realized thanks to the installation of a 5G radio module for indoor coverage manufactured by Ericsson, interconnected to the TIM Core Network through a 10Gbps fiber optic access.

The innovative surgery, carried out according to the expected methods, was made possible thanks to the 4D Suite integrated platform from iVis Technologies, which remotely manages the entire cycle of Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Follow-up of corneal pathologies and refractive errors.

“San Carlo Hospital in Nancy is pleased to have taken part in this innovative project. I am excited about the results achieved today and the potential that telemedicine has in radically transforming the way we provide care to patients. This is just the beginning of a new era in surgery, and I am proud to be part of a team that embraces innovation for the benefit of our patients,” said Dr. Scipione Rossi.

“The surgery performed today was designed online with Ray Tracing technique, using the Cipta® Web application developed by iVis Technologies. Having the possibility to perform a remotely controlled surgery opens new perspectives for the surgeon, allowing him to optimize performance and operate in total safety, wherever the operating room is located,” explained Professor Giovanni Alessio.

“The AICCER Annual Congress has always been a moment of updating for the Italian community of ophthalmic surgeons, open to innovation and progress in knowledge and clinical practice. We wanted to organise, in our usual space dedicated to live surgical broadcasts, this innovative operation performed remotely and followed with great interest by many colleagues,” said Prof. Daniele Tognetto, President of AICCER, Full Professor at the University of Trieste and Director of the Operative Ophthalmology Clinical Unit at the Giuliano Isontina Trieste University Hospital.  “The possibility of remotely managing the stages of a surgical procedure is a new opportunity that favours the use of technologies that open up future perspectives that were unimaginable just a short time ago”, concluded Prof. Tognetto.

“We at iVis Technologies are pioneers and innovators in corneal surgery since 1996, steadily investing over 40% of our turnover in R&D. The 4D Suite, protected by 17 international patents, remotely manages, with totally automated processes, the Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Follow-up of corneal pathologies and refractive errors. Our technology introduces the revolutionary opportunity to offer the same chances of success to every patient, wherever they reside, eliminating the root causes of healthcare migration“, explained Engineer Giuseppe D’Ippolito, sole director of iVis Technologies.