Building Wealth Doc's note: We're living in the platinum age of health care innovation. Breakthroughs in health care and medicine are taking off exponentially, from new methods of diagnosing patients to treating disease... and even new payment systems.
Today, Marc Chaikin – founder of our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics – explains how technology used in a new type of surgery is saving lives...
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Mo Tajer needed lifesaving surgery at one of the worst times in history...
The 31-year-old Englishman had testicular cancer. And he had undergone four rounds of chemotherapy.
But unfortunately, the cancer spread to his abdomen...
Doctors found a roughly 2-inch tumor wrapped around his aorta and inferior vena cava.
The aorta is the body's most important blood vessel. It carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body. And the inferior vena cava moves blood back to the heart.
Doctors knew the tumor could rupture either of these major blood vessels at any moment. If that happened, Tajer could die from internal bleeding.
Tajer had to get the tumor removed as soon as possible.
But doctors faced a big problem...
Tajer needed his surgery in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most major cities were locked down. And many countries had restricted travel.
In hospitals all over the world, doctors and nurses dealt with a surging number of patients as best they could. A lot of those patients fought for their lives in COVID-19 wards.
Many hospitals couldn't keep up with the demand for beds. So they postponed most surgeries.
Tajer couldn't afford to delay his surgery, though. He needed help immediately.
A traditional open surgery was out of the question. Tajer would've needed a two-week recovery in intensive care. And with so many COVID-19 patients, there wasn't any room.
That's when his attending physician, Dr. Archie Fernando, had an idea...
She could use a robot to remove the tumor in a less invasive way.
You see, Tajer's treatment took place at Guy's Hospital in London. And the hospital owned a Da Vinci Xi robotic surgical system...
As you can see, this roughly $2 million system has four robotic arms.
The technology helps doctors perform minimally invasive surgeries – like removing tumors. It's much safer than a traditional open surgery. And it doesn't require a long recovery.
Globally, more than 6,700 hospitals use one of these robotic-assisted surgical systems.
But there was another problem...
Fernando had never performed that kind of surgery.
So she had to get creative again. Specifically, she turned to Dr. Jim Porter for help.
Porter is the medical director for robotic surgery at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. He has conducted thousands of surgeries using the Da Vinci Xi robotic surgical system.
Hospital officials got Tajer to an operating room. Then, Fernando and Porter worked together for five hours to remove the tumor.
Tajer made a quick recovery. And he went on to live his life without any lingering pain.
This story gets even more amazing...
Porter helped Fernando while wearing his pajamas at his home in Seattle.
That's right...
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Porter couldn't travel to London.
But thanks to modern technology, he saw everything in real time. And he guided Fernando step by step through the procedure.
He didn't just talk her through it, either.
With a special program, Porter used his laptop to show Fernando what to do. He pinpointed exactly where she needed to cut Tajer.
Fernando and Porter worked together to save Tajer's life. But without another critical tool in today's tech-heavy world, the procedure wouldn't have been possible.
We're talking about high-speed Internet.
Think about it...
Porter was 4,700 miles away from the operating room. And yet, it felt like he was standing right next to Fernando as she made the needed cuts to remove Tajer's tumor.
If it weren't for high-speed Internet, Tajer likely wouldn't be alive today.
We use high-speed Internet for all sorts of things these days. And that dependence is only growing...
Take artificial intelligence ("AI"), for example.
This emerging technology simply doesn't work without a massive amount of data. And it's critical for that data to move as quickly as possible from one point to another.
Self-driving cars require the collection and processing of a constant stream of data as well. Otherwise, they couldn't safely navigate the roads.
Factory automation is intensifying all over the world, too.
Put simply, humanity keeps finding new and exciting ways to use the incredible tool of the Internet. The massive trend of the data boom isn't going away anytime soon.
Good investing,
Marc Chaikin
Editor's note: Marc uses his Power Gauge system to keep track of trends in the stock market. And he says the market's biggest move of the year could begin on May 9. According to Marc, you have just days to prepare for a turning point in the market that could double your portfolio – with the same strategy he used to nail last year's market high with greater precision than anyone on Wall Street. See his outline (and No. 1 stock to buy now) here.