Lucien Blondel is one of the leading figures in the field of surgical robotics, having already led the development of several platforms supporting orthopaedic, spinal and brain surgeries. Together with Quantum Surgical, which he co-founded alongside Bertin Nahum, Fernand Badano and Sophie Roca, they are addressing liver cancer through a new robotic platform supporting ablation procedures. Under the name of “Epione” (the goddess of care in the Greek mythology), it represents a breakthrough in this field, not only supporting surgeons in the execution of the ablation procedure, but also in the planning phase up to the validation of the surgical act. Through a combination of cutting-edge image processing technology, computer vision and haptics, Epione is on its way to revolutionize interventional oncology and improve access to liver cancer ablation, for patients and for surgeons. We exchanged with Lucien on his background, what brought him to surgical robotics, the specificities of this field, his role in leading the technical development of Epione, and its underlying promise in the cure of liver cancer. Timeline: (02:09) - Lucien’s introduction and background in surgical robotics (04:51) - How he got into this field and what drove his interest to it (07:43) - The uprising of surgical robotics and key developments over the past years (14:16) - Identifying the right disease area and type of intervention (20:02) - The type of cancer targeted by Epione and the surgical act it complements (22:49) - Enabling percutaneous ablation beyond interventional radiologists (25:02) - Applications of Epione beyond liver cancer (27:20) - Epione’s components and workflow (32:51) - Synchronizing the patient’s breathing to the robotic arm positioning (35:43) - Synergies between Epione and other platforms previously developed by Lucien and his team (38:22) - Moving towards fully autonomous surgical interventions (41:20) - The meaning behind “Epione” (43:11) - Suggested resources to dig deeper into surgical robotics (45:34) - The “Why” What we also talked about with Lucien: ROSA Epione Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery Versius Surgical Robotic System Da Vinci Surgical Systems ExcelsiusGPS Gustave Roussy Institute Mayo Clinic The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery If you want to know more about Quantum Surgical, we invite you to consult their website: https://www.quantumsurgical.com/ You can contact Lucien through LinkedIn or by email: l.blondel@quantumsurgical.com If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: m.chaffard05@gmail.com