Shanghai, China, 11 June 2022 - The Toumai® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot (hereafter referred to as “Toumai®”), independently developed by Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as “MicroPort® MedBot®’) successfully completed two ultra-long-range 5G robotic surgeries in urology through 5G connection between Xinjiang Kezhou People's Hospital and Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital. These two surgeries were nearly 5,000 km apart, making them the longest 5G remote robotic surgeries in the world to date.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the world's first remote cholecystectomy, the Lindberg procedure, was performed in France and the United States via submarine fiber optic cable, which marked mankind’s exploration of breaking geographical limitations to perform remote surgery. It was short-lived due to its inability to address the limitations of point-to-point physical connectivity and the high cost of communication. Today, the Toumai® surgical robot is able to break the technological barrier and successfully perform surgery "across 10,000 miles". Remote surgery, especially in less developed and remote areas, has been a major concern in recent years. On the one hand, doctors hope to receive sufficient guidance from experts to master the key skills of surgery; on the other hand, in most of the difficult and complicated surgeries, doctors urgently need senior experts to take the lead in some steps of the procedure to overcome technical challenges, and then the doctors will perform the rest of the procedure to complete the surgery in phases.

Approved for marketing by the NMPA in China in January 2022, Toumai® has clinical advantages such as three-dimensional realistic surgical field and highly flexible wrist surgical instruments, and has fully demonstrated its effectiveness and safety in clinical trials. The technical difficulty of remote surgery is to eliminate the delay in transmission of image and control signals due to the influence of "off-site factors" and to break the barrier of real-time communication between medical personnel in two places. The application of Toumai® 5G remote technology minimizes the delay of images and control through simultaneous transmission and reproduction of 3D images, and enables real-time monitoring and early warning of network communication quality to ensure safe and smooth completion of the surgery.

“The success of this surgery is a milestone," noted Dr. Ninghong Song, President of Xinjiang Kezhou People's Hospital. "The completion of the surgery in a virtual 'aerial operating room' marks a revolutionary breakthrough in surgery from bedside robot-assisted surgery to 5G remote surgery." Dr. Jie Yang, Director of Urology from the hospital said, "Let information run more and patients run less. Such technological innovation allows local patients in Kezhou to receive surgical assistance from Jiangsu experts at their 'doorstep'."

"The successful implementation of this 5G telesurgery reflects the excellent performance of Toumai® robot and its perfect compatibility with the 5G network, as reflected in the clear and simultaneous transmission of images and the precise operation of instruments, which made me very satisfied with the telesurgery experience," said Dr. Jie Li, director of the Department of Urology at Jiangsu People's Hospital, after the surgery,

According to Mr. Yu Liu, Chief Commercial Officer of MicroPort® MedBot®, "Toumai®, supported by 5G technology, enables doctors to 'see thousands of miles and perform from thousands of miles away'. Doctors have to perform on site in conventional surgical operations, but the 5G transmission technology allows surgeons' arms to extend thousands of miles, which greatly expands their surgical space; at the same time, it is also conducive to the utilization of high-quality medical resources, narrowing the gap of treatment at different levels of hospitals and reducing the economic burden of patients. We will continue our mission of MicroPort® MedBot® to get rid of difficult surgeries in the world."