From The Journal of Martinsburg:
The Eastern Panhandle is becoming a destination for leading-edge technology in the field of medicine thanks to advances at WVU Medicine’s Berkeley Medical Center.
Recently, BMC became the first medical center in the West Virginia and the tri-state area to add the Mazor X, a robotic surgical platform, which will be used by its new Medicine Brain and Spine Center.
To have such state-of-the-art technology in a community this size is astounding and credit should go to the great team at BMC who made it happen.
The Mazor — which was delivered to BMC on Aug. 17 — performed its first surgery Monday afternoon, a bone biopsy. Doctors use the robot’s surgical arm to guide surgical tools and implants at the right trajectory and position based on a surgical plan developed using Mazor robot software.
Dr. John Caruso, neurosurgeon and medical director of WVU Medicine Brain and Spine at Berkeley Medical Center, said Mazor X is precise — within 1.5 millimeters.
“That’s better than the best spine surgeons in the world,” he said Monday, prior to performing the first procedure with Mazor X at BMC.
The Mazor X offers a minimally invasive procedure — which for patients means less pain, less blood loss, smaller incisions and shorter recovery periods. That’s a big deal. Put simply, people will heal faster.
“Any time you use minimally invasive procedures, it has distinct benefits,” BMC President and CEO Anthony Zelenka said in a Journal story Tuesday. “From an administrative standpoint, it’s providing very high level quality services to our local population.”
Caruso has provided neurosurgery services to the tri-state region for two decades, most recently at Parkway Brain and Spine in Hagerstown. On Aug. 1, WVU’s Hagerstown office became WVU Medicine Brain and Spine, as Caruso was named director of neurological surgery at BMC.
Bringing Caruso on board is the first phase of developing BMC’s neuro-spine center. Zelenka said the center here will eventually have three neurosurgeons, one pain management/anasthesiologist and a physiatrist.
While the plans for the Brain and Spine Center are impressive, that’s not all BMC has planned.
Zelenka said he plans to recruit 75 physicians over the next three years in all fields of medicine.
“We are recruiting the best that we can find,” he said.
We are excited to see what’s next for BMC.
Even as the facility is announcing this new cutting-edge technology, Caruso said it’s purpose is to reach more people — to help more people.
He also said a hospital with the right people can be just as good, no matter its size or location.
We tend to agree; lucky for us we have the right people.