The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics (HSMR) is now in its 13th year and has provided an annual forum for surgeons and engineers from across the globe to network and explore the latest developments in medical robotics. Every year researchers, clinicians and engineers are invited to submit papers on a range of topics covering clinical specialities in Urology, Cardiac Surgery, Neuro Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Gynaecology, ENT, Orthopaedic and Paediatric Surgery.
This year we plan to build beyond the previous achievements and take the symposium to even higher successes with the theme of ‘Surgery and Beyond’. We have already received full CPD accreditation from the Royal College of Surgeons and to complement this we are planning a programme with increased focus on clinical practitioner centered talks, workshops and presentations.
Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics 2021:
Featured Speaker Professor Philip Wai Yan Chiu
– Flexible endoscopic robot for treatment of gastrointestinal cancers – from bench to clinical application
We are pleased to announce 
Professor Chiu, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, is one of the featured speakers of the Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics 2021.
Professor Chiu will give a talk on ‘Flexible endoscopic robot for treatment of gastrointestinal cancers – from bench to clinical application’ followed by a Q&A session.
Abstract
astrointestinal cancers are the commonest cancer worldwide, and the treatment outcome correlates with stage of cancer diagnosis. With introduction of screening endoscopy, AI and image enhanced endoscopy, gastrointestinal cancers should be diagnosed at early stage. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is currently established as treatment of early-stage gastrointestinal cancer with high rate of en-bloc resection. However, ESD is technically demanding with significant risks of bleeding and perforation. One of the major limitations in performing ESD is due to the technical design of dissection knife passing through the working channel which is in co-axial direction with the endoscope.
The development of flexible robotics allowed increased degree of freedom for therapeutic instruments deep within the gastrointestinal tract. In collaboration with National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, we developed the Master and Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot (MASTER) [1]. The first prototype of EndoMaster was tested in a clinical proof of concept study with 5 patients receiving robotic ESD for treatment of early gastric cancers. All patients received successful ESD procedure with no complication. The system was further developed into the new generation of EndoMaster EASE system. We conducted preclinical studies on use of EndoMaster EASE system for performance of robotic ESD in esophagus and colon [2,3,4]. The results demonstrated success in performance of ESD using EndoMaster EASE system in esophagus and colorectum. With the encouraging results from preclinical studies, our team started clinical trial for performance of colorectal ESD in treatment of early colorectal neoplasia.
The other direction in development of flexible robotics is to design novel flexible robotic arms for dissection and retraction building on existing endoscopic platform. Our team of engineers and clinicians from Chinese University of Hong Kong adopting a different design mechanism and developed flexible robotic system for performance of gastric ESD [5].
In future, flexible robotics will be increasingly applied for development of therapeutic devices including suturing and stapling devices for treatment of gastrointestinal diseases [6].
References
1. . Robot-assisted endoscopic submucosal dissection is effective in treating patients with early-stage gastric neoplasia. Phee SJ, Reddy N, Chiu PW, Rebala P, Rao GV, Wang Z, Sun Z, Wong JY, Ho KY. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2012 Oct;10(10):1117-21.
2. Enhancing proficiency in performing endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) by using a prototype robotic endoscope. Chiu PW, Phee SJ, Bhandari P, Sumiyama K, Ohya T, Wong J, Poon CC, Tajiri H, Nakajima K, Ho KY. Endosc Int Open. 2015 Oct;3(5):E439-42.
3. Feasibility of performing esophageal endoscopic submucosal dissection using master and slave transluminal endoscopic robot. Takeshita N, Ho KY, Phee SJ, Wong J, Chiu PW. Endoscopy. 2017 Feb;49(S 01):E27-E28.
4. Colonic endoscopic submucosal dissection using a novel robotic system (with video). Chiu PWY, Ho KY, Phee SJ. Gastrointest Endosc. 2021 May;93(5):1172-1177.
5. A flexible surgical robotic system for removal of early-stage gastrointestinal cancers by endoscopic submucosal dissection KC Lau, EYY Leung, PWY Chiu, Y Yam, JYW Lau, CCY Poon. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 2016; 12 (6), 2365-2374
6. Application of robotics in gastrointestinal endoscopy: A review. Yeung BP, Chiu PW. World J Gastroenterol. 2016 Feb 7;22(5):1811-25.
Biography
Professor Philip Wai Yan, Chiu
MD(CUHK), MBChB(CUHK), FRCSEd, FCSHK, FHKAM (Surgery)
Philip Chiu is currently Professor of Division of Upper GI and Metabolic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Director of Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Center, Director of Endoscopy Center, Institute of Digestive Disease; Director of CUHK Jockey Club Minimal Invasive Surgical Skills Center; Director of CUHK Chow Yuk Ho Technology Center for Innovative Medicine and Associate Dean (External Affairs), Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Chiu graduated from Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1994 with two scholarships. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2001 and received his Doctor of Medicine at CUHK in 2009. Prof. Chiu is first to perform endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for treatment of early GI cancers in Hong Kong in 2004. In 2010, he performed first Per-oral Endoscopic Myotomy (P.O.E.M.) in Hong Kong as well as pioneering World first robotic gastric ESD in 2011.
His research interests include esophageal cancer management, minimally invasive and robotic esophagectomy, novel endoscopic technologies for diagnosis of early GI cancers, endoscopic surgery as well as robotics for endoluminal surgery. He has published more than 200 peer reviewed manuscripts and 6 book chapters. He received numerous prestigious awards including State Scientific Technology and Progress Award from People’s Republic of China in 2007, 2nd class award in Technological Advancement, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China in 2011. His research on POEM was awarded best of DDW 2011 and first prize of ASGE world cup of endoscopy 2012. He was selected as Asia Pacific Digestive Week JGHF Emerging Leader Lectureship in 2016 and Global Outstanding Chinese Youth 2016. He received the Gold Medal with Congratulations from Jury, 47th International Exhibitions of Inventions of Geneva in 2019 and Spirit of Hong Kong Award on Innovation in 2020. He is currently co-editor of Endoscopy and subject editor for Surgical Endoscopy.