In a medical first for Europe, surgeons in Barcelona are now performing complex urological operations on patients lying in a hospital bed more than 2,500 kilometres away, marking a significant leap forward in remote healthcare.
Your browser does not support the video tag.
The groundbreaking initiative is a collaboration between the Fundació Puigvert in Barcelona and the Hospital San Roque in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Together, they have launched the continent’s first structured clinical programme for robotic telesurgery, bridging a vast geographical distance to provide elite surgical care.
The clinical leader of the programme is Dr. Alberto Breda, a renowned surgeon who also serves as the president of the Robotic Surgery Section of the European Society of Urology (ERUS). From a specialised console at the Fundació Puigvert, Dr. Breda manipulates the controls of a surgical robot, whose precise arms carry out the operation in real-time on a patient in the Canary Islands.
“While there have been isolated cases of robotic telesurgery before, this is the first time in Europe that a programme has been established to perform them routinely and systematically,” Dr. Breda explained in a report by Europa Press. He himself conducted a one-off procedure from Bordeaux, France, on a patient in Beijing earlier this year, but this new programme represents a move from demonstration to daily practice.
Bridging the Distance with Technology
The success of such a long-distance procedure hinges on near-instantaneous communication. To achieve this, the system relies on an exclusive, dedicated internet cable connecting the two hospitals directly. This connection guarantees a latency, or delay, of just 35 milliseconds-well below the 200-millisecond threshold considered critical for maintaining surgical precision.
This kind of high-stakes technological integration underscores Barcelona’s position as a digital powerhouse, a reputation cemented by two decades of hosting the Mobile World Congress. During an operation, Dr. Breda looks through binoculars and uses joystick-like controls to guide the robot. Meanwhile, a trusted local team at Hospital San Roque, headed by Dr. Pablo Juárez del Dago, is present in the operating theatre to supervise and intervene in the unlikely event of an unforeseen issue.
The initiative, which Dr. Breda began planning in September 2023, has already proven its viability. During the first three weeks of February, he successfully performed 10 urological interventions of varying complexity from his Barcelona base. The project is another example of the city’s pioneering medical work, which includes recent breakthroughs like the protocol at Hospital Del Mar that drastically cut mortality from intestinal infarction.
“Decentralising the Super-specialty”
Dr. Breda deliberately chose the Canary Islands. Its remote, archipelagic geography presented the perfect test case. “If I can get there, I can get anywhere,” he stated, highlighting the programme’s core mission: to democratise access to specialised healthcare.
By enabling top specialists to operate on patients in remote or underserved areas, the programme breaks down the barriers of geography and resource disparity. “In a way, we are decentralising the super-specialty,” Dr. Breda added, noting the “great response” from patients who have placed their full trust in the long-distance team.
“It’s something I created, that came out of my head and my hands and from weekends dedicated to setting this up. I feel very proud to have been able to conceive a programme like this and translate it into common practice.”– Dr. Alberto Breda, Fundació Puigvert
The Road to Wider Adoption
Dr. Breda believes the potential for scaling the system is “incredible.” While currently focused on urology, the model could easily be adapted for any discipline that uses robotic surgery, suchs as gynaecology or general surgery.
However, wider implementation faces several hurdles. Establishing similar programmes will require significant work on network security, patient and surgeon safety protocols, medical certification, and navigating legal and administrative barriers. Participating institutions will also need to resolve the complex question of cost allocation.
Undeterred, Dr. Breda is confident in overcoming these challenges and is already in contact with European authorities to explore expanding the programme’s reach. He insists it is a matter of administrative will and hopes this successful pilot will demonstrate the immense potential of telesurgery to transform healthcare across Catalonia, Spain, and Europe.
