In this episode, Managing Director Sue O'Sullivan sits down with Mischa Dohler, Vice President of Emerging Technologies at Ericsson, to preview the upcoming SRS annual meeting starting on July 23rd. Dohler describes the event as a unique, 360-degree ecosystem gathering that brings together not just robotic surgeons, but also networking companies, legal experts, insurance representatives, and regulators like the FDA.

They highlight how telesurgery has rapidly matured from an experimental niche into a viable commercial reality capable of saving lives and closing the global health equity gap, as demonstrated by successful trans-Atlantic surgeries. The conversation also previews the cutting-edge future of physical AI, highlighting how humanoid droids can utilize 5G and edge cloud computing to assist with hospital and operating room tasks.

Dohler teasers his involvement co-chairing three key sessions at the upcoming meeting: one focusing on telesurgery connectivity (including satellite options like Starlink), another addressing regulatory and insurance bottlenecks with key FDA stakeholders, and a final session on whether autonomous AI will complement or supersede human surgeons. With over 3,000 registrants already signed up, O'Sullivan and Dohler encourage listeners to register at srobotics.org to take part in these industry-shaping discussions.