Memorial Hospital celebrating 200th robotic bronchoscopic case

This afternoon, Memorial Hospital’s pulmonology team celebrated a huge milestone in their quest to treat and prevent lung cancer.

Memorial has successfully completed 200 robotic bronchoscopic procedures with the use of the Auris Health Monarch Platform.

The hospital began offering this procedure in March 2019 and was one of the first 14 medical centers in the nation to offer robotic bronchoscopies.

The innovative method helps physicians diagnose and eventually treat small peripheral areas of the lungs earlier and with more precision. Dr. Summer Allen with Pulmonary and Critical Care said, “The one thing about Mississippi is we have a lot of smokers. We have a lot people with lung cancer. And we have a lot of current smokers. So, we need this. We need this technology here more than other states who don’t have as much lung cancer. So, for Gulfport, Mississippi this is changing the lives of our residents here and of course we want to take care of our own. We don’t want to have to send them to some big university somewhere. We want to be able to do it at home. And that’s the part that has been great about this technology.”

Account Manager with Auris Geoff Loose said, “The goal is over time to advance into other stages in flexible endoscopy. So, into urology space and into the G.I. space later on down the road. And Johnson & Johnson is doing a ton of R&D and research behind the scenes on being able to quickly and hopefully very soon deliver on those as well as other specialties.”

Memorial is also the most tenured hospital to use this technology in the Gulf Coast region.