Iran signs deal with Indonesia to establish robotic remote surgery center

Iran’s Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian health minister to establish a robotic telesurgery center in a hospital in the city of Makassar in Indonesia.

In the virtual meeting, Iranian Vice President Rouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi hailed the close cooperation between the two countries since 2019, following a trip by the former Indonesian health minister to Iran, which he said has ‘brought about remarkable achievements’ for Indonesia during the tenure of Budi Gonadi Sadikin, the current health minister.

Dehghani expressed hope that the remote surgery center, where operations will be carried out by a robotic surgeon controlled by human at a distance, would serve as a model for further collaborations between the two countries. 

The Indonesia-Iran Remote Robotic Surgery Center will be established based on a joint venture between Iran’s Vice Presidency for Science, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran’s Sina Robotics Company, Indonesia’s Health Ministry, Hasanuddin University and Indofarma Company.

In a previous collaborative effort in 2019, the first robotic telesurgery was successfully carried out between the two Indonesian cities of Bandung and Yogyakarta 500 kilometers apart.