[Anchor]

China, which is investing heavily in robotics, is experiencing rapid growth in surgical robots. While there is still a significant gap with market leader Da Vinci of the U.S., China is closely pursuing it by leveraging remote surgery.

Correspondent Choi Go-un reports from Beijing.

[Reporter]

[Hello, Professor. This is Kazakhstan.]

[Nice to meet you. Let's go over what you've done and check the details of the patient case.]

This is a scene from a kidney tumor surgery.

A doctor is standing next to a patient in Kazakhstan, while two other doctors in France and China respectively control consoles from their own locations, performing the surgery together as a trio.

This is a so-called transcontinental remote surgery using "Candos," a surgical robot made by a Chinese company.

[Professor Fushan, it's your turn. (Yes.)]

We visited the company that manufactured this surgical robot.

Founded in 2013, the company has built three factories and 16 robotic surgery training centers in about a decade.

It is targeting "da Vinci," the surgical robot from a U.S. company that dominates the global surgical robot market, by highlighting high-resolution 3D displays, highly flexible robotic arms, and an open console that eliminates the need for doctors to bury their faces.

[Liu Ziqiang / Director at Edge Medical: (The open console) reduces fatigue in the neck and lower back of surgeons performing long procedures. Outsiders can also easily observe the surgical process.]

Doctors actually look at screens like this when performing surgeries.

To the naked eye, it may look quite blurry, but when you wear 3D glasses like these, the screen becomes extremely clear and you can feel the sense of depth sharply reduced.

There are about 10 Chinese surgical robot companies challenging da Vinci's stronghold.

However, experts note that the technological gap with da Vinci, which holds over 700 technology patents, is still wide, and it is not enough to overcome the clinical data, doctors' proficiency, and robust supply chain that da Vinci has accumulated over a long period.

For this reason, some aspects of their promotion focus on remote surgery, which da Vinci does not currently offer, rather than technical advantages alone.

Even so, with the Chinese government strongly backing the industry through localization policies and fierce competition among Chinese companies, forecasts suggest they will narrow the gap in the near future.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News)
(Reported by Choi Deok-hyun | Video by Jeon Min-gyu | Graphics by Choi Jin-hoe)