NewsSarasota, Manatee County

Actions

Sarasota doctors use robotic cameras to screen for lung cancer

Posted
and last updated

SARASOTA, Fla. — Doctors at Sarasota Memorial Hospital are using small robotic cameras to find lung cancer and then perform biopsies. The technology just started being used at the hospital at the beginning of this year.

"With this new technology we are able to go out further into the lung tissue and take biopsies that we weren’t previously able to do,” said Dr. Joseph Seaman.

The doctors put the cameras down a patient's throat, then use hand controllers to move the cameras. Patients are often out of the hospital within a few hours.

"This technology takes human error out of the equation,” said Seaman.

Mike Miller said the team at Sarasota Memorial Hospital helped find his lung cancer fast.

“If it weren’t for them I would probably be doing chemo or counting the days until I have to take more morphine. Now I can take my grandkids to the park,” said Miller.

Sarasota Memorial Hospital is one of only ten in the country using the new robotic cameras.

“Our goal is to identify these cancers as early as possible so they don’t grow and spread outside the lungs,” said Seaman.