Iran, Indonesia agree to launch robotic telesurgery center

Iran and Indonesia have agreed as part of a joint venture to open a robotic telesurgery center at a hospital in the Asian country’s port city of Makassar.

Over a virtual meeting between Iran’s Vice President for Science, Technology, and Knowledge-based Economy Rouhollah Dehghani, and Indonesia’s Minister of Health Budi Gonadi Sadikin on Sunday, the two sides agreed on setting up the center.

In a robotic telesurgery center operations will be carried out by using a robotic surgeon that is controlled by a human based at a faraway distance.

Under the agreement, the “Indonesia-Iran Remote Robotic Surgery Center” will be established in collaboration between Iran’s vice presidency for science, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran’s Sina Robotics Company, Indonesia’s Ministry of Health, Hasanuddin University and Indofarma Company.

“It is a source of pride that since 2019, after Indonesia’s then-minister of health visited Iran, the cooperation between the two countries in the field of remote robotic surgery has begun and was followed by Budi Gonadi Sadikin, and after four years, it has brought about remarkable achievements,” Dehghani said at the virtual meeting.

Dehghani explained that during Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi’s trip to Indonesia in May his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo expressed his satisfaction about a robotic telesurgery project between the two cities of Bandung and Yogyakarta, which are 500 km apart.

Building on that successful experience, he added, Indonesia’s Minister of Health proposed to carry out a similar project across the Indonesian archipelago between the cities of Madan and Makassar that covered a distance of 3500 km.

According to Dehghani, the latest agreement can help boost the resilience of the two countries’ health industries and promote their cutting-edge medical equipment in robotic telesurgery.

“It can also serve as a model for other areas and [inspire] other successful collaborations between Iran and Indonesia,” he added.

In a separate agreement in August, Iran and Indonesia clinched a deal that enabled exports of Iran’s domestically manufactured robot surgeons to the Southeast Asian country.

Under the agreement, which was inked between Iran’s Sina Robotics Company and Indonesia’s Indofarma, the Islamic Republic was also trusted with setting up two centers in Indonesia that would be devoted to the development of robotic surgery.

In June, Iran became the second country in the world to successfully try its hand at robotic telesurgery.

MG