Twenty Medical Club members visited an open house on Saturday at Intuitive Surgical, Inc., a biomedical company that is in the process of creating a robotic surgical system.

The company’s most recent development is the Da Vinci surgical robot, which allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures remotely. When using this system to perform surgeries, the surgeon clutches the handles of a machine and guides those handles, which correspond to robotic instruments. During the open house on Saturday, students had the chance to use this technology in various demo settings.

“The demo was an amazing hands-on experience that allowed me to see what it was like in the shoes of the surgeon,” Malvika Khanna (10) said. “Through this trip, I saw the engineering side of medicine and not just the biology.”

In addition to using the latest technology in the medical field, students watched a video of a surgery performed with the Da Vinci system. After an enthusiastic response from the club members, the club’s officers decided to hold a screening of this video during one of their club meetings for all the club members to see.

“Following the suggestion of our club members, we will be screening parts of this surgical video during one of our meetings so that the members who did not go on the trip can see what we learned,” Zina Jawadi (12) said.

After testing the machinery, the club members had the opportunity to listen to three lectures given by teams involved in the creation of the Da Vinci product. The engineering, design, and marketing teams talked to students about their initial ideas behind building a robotic system for surgeries. Throughout the discussions, the presenters emphasized the goal of having a robot conducted surgery.

“The main benefit of using the Da Vinci system is the patient’s experience because a patient’s length of stay is drastically reduced since they do not have large incisions and the robotic system makes surgery easier for the person performing it,” said Kayle Keifer Anderson, one of the guides at the company.

The medical club was one of the only organizations that attended this open house with a focus on the surgical rather than the robotic aspect. While the club fosters many discussions about the field of medicine and surgery, club President Zina Jawadi thought this trip would be beneficial to the club’s focus.

“The attendees will have a better feel for the surgical experience and the future of medical science through this trip. We plan on incorporating a discussion about the techniques we learned in our meetings,” Zina said.

Zina plans on increasing the number of trips the club will take and guest speakers the club will host this year after her success with this trip. She will hold a meeting on Oct. 30 to discuss the trip with other club members and view the video presented at the open house.