TMF-Sponsored Robotics Exhibit Opens Saturday

TYLER — It’s a way to celebrate the seventh year of performing heart and other surgeries using robotic-assisted technology. Officials with Trinity Mother Frances Hospitals and Clinics and The Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital have unveiled a children’s robotics exhibit at the Discovery Science Place that opens to the public on Saturday. The exhibit is designed to give visitors a hands-on opportunity to learn more about how robotics helps heal patients.

Hospital officials say technology like the da Vinci robot makes a surgeon’s movements more precise, giving more range of motion and providing enhanced 3-D visualization of the operating field. They say it also improves dexterity, but ultimately, the surgeon makes all the movements. From an educational standpoint, according to a news release, “this exhibit will show people how robotic technology and the human mind can combine to create powerful advancements in medical care. We are making steps towards non-invasive surgery that would not be possible without robotic technology.” Officials said the Trinity Mother Frances Foundation sponsored the exhibit to help children and parents better understand the direction that technology is taking medicine and hopefully inspire a young person to consider medicine as a career.