SAFROS Project: patient safety in robotic surgery
The SAFROS Project is funded by the European Commission and works at understanding patient safety in robotic surgery through the development of technologies and procedures to assist surgeons. The main goal of the SAFROS project is to explore whether robotic surgery carried out in accordance with safety criteria can improve the level of patient safety currently achievable by traditional surgery. The project endeavors to:
- analyse safety in robotic surgery;
- formalise safety requirements;
- establish safety procedures;
- establish verification protocols.
These will then be tested and validated in two specific areas of surgery: pancreatic and vascular surgery.
The project is being developed by several partners composing the SAFROS consortium: hospitals with worldwide reputations to provide medical knowledge and to validate the approach; leading European research groups in tele-robotics and surgical robotics; innovative companies to develop new technologies for surgical simulators; renowned educational organizations to provide innovative surgeon training; and WHO Patient Safety to offer global expertise in safety guidelines for patient surgery. By participating in this project and using robotic surgery as an example, WHO Patient Safety seeks to better understand how to ensure the inclusion of patient safety in the development of new technologies and devise appropriate methodologies for doing so.