TidalHealth hosts Robotic Summit

SEAFORD, Del. — TidalHealth Nanticoke hosted a robotic summit Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Surgeons showcased the hospital’s state-of-the-art robotic equipment that helps perform complex, minimally invasive procedures.

TidalHealth Nanticoke cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Kurt Wehberg said he works with the robots on a daily basis.

“Five years ago, we had the mission of developing the most state-of-the-art robotic program in the state of Delaware. So that’s what we did over the past five years. We’ve developed five robots we have at TidalHealth Nanticoke now. We have the DaVinci and several other robots that can pretty much do anything in the whole body. We do a lot of knee surgeries — I do heart and lung surgery with the robots — so we do that here at TidalHealth Nanticoke on a daily basis.”

TidalHealth Nanticoke President Penny Short said having the robots locally enhances the hospital’s ability to care for patients.

“I think having state-of-the-art equipment is so important. Many people think they have to travel to get this kind of technology, but we’ve got it here close to home,” Short said. She added, “If you think of the pulmonary robot and the pulmonologist with that robot, they’re able to get cancer diagnoses even earlier — and the earlier you have that diagnosis, the better the outcomes are. Along with the DaVinci robot, you have better outcomes, shorter length of stay, less pain, and people can get back to work quicker. It really does provide quite a bit to the quality of care that we’re able to provide here at Nanticoke.”