Corindus' CorPath Technology Used in First-in-Human Telerobotic Coronary Intervention

December 6, 2018—Corindus Vascular Robotics, Inc. announced that its CorPath GRX technology was used to conduct the first-in-human (FIH) GRX With ReMOTE study. Five patients located at the Apex Heart Institute in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India underwent elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) from a distance of approximately 20 miles away.

According to the company, the procedures in this study represent the first PCIs conducted from a remote location outside of the catheterization lab. Tejas Patel, MD, Chairman and Chief Interventional Cardiologist at the Apex Heart Institute, remotely performed each procedure from inside the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple located in Gandhinagar. Dr. Patel's partner, Sanjay Shah, MD, was in the room with the patient at the Apex Heart Institute.

In the company's press release, Dr. Patel commented, “The first-in-human cases of remote robotic PCI represent a landmark event for interventional medicine. The application of telerobotics in India has the potential to impact a significant number of lives by providing access to care that may not otherwise have been possible. For the first time in cardiology’s history, India will shine for this ground-breaking innovation, and I am honored to be a part of this historic occasion.”

Corindus advised that after these successful FIH telerobotic coronary stenting cases performed in India, the company plans to begin commercial product development for use of the CorPath system in remote interventions and expand the company’s robotic platform to address stroke care.

The company noted that at TCT 2018, the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference held September 21–25 in San Diego, California, the first live transmission of a remote robotic demonstration was streamed from the Mayo Clinic using CorPath GRX with developmental remote technology in a porcine model. The Mayo Clinic recently received a multiyear $3.3 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to support exploring the feasibility and practicality of using remote robotic technology for cardiac interventions.