“Rise of Robotics in Orthopedic Surgery” Event Streaming Live Tuesday

MedStar Health orthopedic experts to share the latest technology in robotic surgeries

BALTIMORE – Seven MedStar Health orthopedic experts from one of the largest robotic orthopedic surgery programs on the east coast will participate in an hour-long livestream event from MedStar Union Memorial Hospital Tuesday, March 28th at 6 p.m., and share the latest technology in robotic and augmented reality surgeries for hip, knee, and spine.

The interactive forum, Rise of Robotics, will be hosted by WMAR ABC 2 anchor, Jamie Costello, and can be viewed on the Facebook and YouTube pages of MedStar Health and its Baltimore hospitals: MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, MedStar Good Samaritan, MedStar Harbor, and MedStar Harbor Hospitals. It will also stream from WMAR’s Facebook page.

Viewers can post comments and questions on the social media platforms and get real-time answers from the panelists. Each will present on a related topic. They are:

• Pooyan Abbasi, MSc, director, Medical Research STAT Laboratory
• Paul Asdourian, MD, spine surgeon, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital
• Henry Boucher, MD, physician executive director, MedStar Orthopaedic Institute in Baltimore and chair, Orthopaedics, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital
• Bryan W. Cunningham, PhD, director, MedStar Health Musculoskeletal Education and Research Institute
• David L. Gold, MD, section chief, Orthopaedic Surgery, MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center
• Mark Hasenauer, MD, orthopedic surgeon, MedStar Orthopaedic Institute
• Bradley Moatz, MD, spine surgeon, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital

The robotic approach is widely touted as the most advanced joint replacement technology available, ensuring a more accurate, precise, and less invasive approach for spine procedures and hip and knee replacements and revisions.

In addition to showcasing the variety of robotic options, research experts will demonstrate how robotics are used to test the safety of surgical techniques, implants, and devices. A camera will be positioned in the unique research space of Dr. Bryan Cunningham to give viewers a rare glimpse of the MedStar Musculoskeletal Education and Research Institute’s research space.

Spine surgeon Dr. Bradley Moatz will show how augmented reality and medical science have intersected to transform a patient's imaging data into a 3-dimensional hologram that is visible through an optical visor. By superimposing that image onto the patient, surgeons can operate within a submillimeter of accuracy.

Dr. Henry Boucher performed the first robotic arm-assisted total knee replacement in Maryland at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in 2017. Since then, dozens of robotics-trained surgeons from the MedStar Health system have used the technology to replace thousands of joints.

In 2021, spine surgeons Paul Asdourian, MD and Paul McAfee, MD, were the first in the mid-Atlantic region to use robotic GPS navigation to perform a lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF), replacing two discs and aligning the patient’s spine.