Joseph Nathan, MD, MSc is the Co-Founder, President and Chief Medical Officer at ForSight Robotics. Dr. Nathan has over 20 years of expertise in medical innovation. Beforehand, he directed healthcare commercialization on the Technion – Israel Institute of Know-how, and served as Director of New Ventures for the Technion’s Alfred Mann Institute, a $100M three way partnership incubating medical startups. Dr. Nathan earned a BSc in Biotechnology Engineering, MSc in Industrial Engineering, and MD, all from the Technion. Dr. Nathan additionally accomplished 3 years of ophthalmic surgical procedure residence at Rambam Hospital.
ForSight Robotics is pioneering developments in eye surgical procedure with a mission to enhance international entry to high-quality ophthalmic care. Thousands and thousands of individuals worldwide expertise poor imaginative and prescient and face obstacles to wonderful surgical therapy. ForSight Robotics goals to handle these challenges with ORYOM™, the primary hybrid intraocular robotic ophthalmic platform, designed to reinforce and develop the capabilities of ophthalmic surgical procedure on a worldwide scale.
What impressed you to co-found ForSight Robotics, and the way did your background as each a doctor and engineer form the imaginative and prescient for the corporate?
Whereas finding out to be an engineer on the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Know-how, I used to be fascinated by the intricacies of multidisciplinary applied sciences and the way it may help sufferers. After receiving my BSc and MSc in engineering, I pursued my MD diploma adopted by three years of residency in ophthalmic surgical procedure. Whereas in residency, I realized first-hand the excessive degree of precision required of surgeons to function successfully and the toll these extremely technical surgical procedures takes on surgeons. I additionally discovered that it took many years to grasp the excessive degree of ability wanted to supply probably the most correct surgical care, and sometimes heard ophthalmic surgeons say that they “function like robots” because of the repetitive nature of ophthalmic procedures, just like the elimination of cataracts. In ophthalmology, precision and accuracy are essential to making sure protected surgical procedures. With my engineering background and expertise within the working room, I knew there was a greater option to ship extra correct affected person care, guarantee higher outcomes, and ease surgeon burnout. Thus, the thought for ForSight Robotics was born.
I knew we would have liked a powerful founding workforce to carry this imaginative and prescient to life. I approached Professor Moshe Shoham, with whom I had labored throughout my time on the Technion and who had based the robotics laboratory at each the Technion and at Columbia. Because the founding father of Mazor Robotics, he brings many years of technical information and expertise constructing superior programs. We additionally partnered with robotics skilled Daniel Glozman, PhD, who was considered one of Prof. Shoham’s first college students, and collectively we based ForSight Robotics.
Why did you select ophthalmic surgical procedure as the main target for ForSight Robotics, and the way do you see robotics remodeling this subject within the subsequent decade?
Globally, at the least 1.1 billion folks have preventable imaginative and prescient impairment, and inside this affected person group, cataracts are the main situation inflicting impairment or blindness in over 600 million sufferers. Over 30 million cataract surgical procedures are carried out yearly, making them the commonest process worldwide. Within the US, there are 32M sufferers in want of surgical procedure to handle cataracts, but solely 11K surgeons are skilled on this subject, leaving an enormous accessibility hole for sufferers in want of surgical care. Due to the worldwide market want and our profound robotics experience, we centered on constructing our ORYOM™ Platform (Hebrew for daylight)—the primary robotic ophthalmic platform to deal with cataract and different widespread eye illnesses—to handle this ongoing drawback, develop ophthalmic surgical procedure entry, and shut a rising surgical care hole.
Concerning transformation, the robotics business is at an inflection level. AI and automation have accelerated the development of expertise, and public notion of medical robots is at an all-time excessive. We see sufferers looking for superior technological care, and surgeons preferring to make use of surgical robotics in different specialties – and there’s additionally excessive curiosity from ophthalmologists who need their subject to “catch up” with the technological advances they see in different specialties which have already had robotic surgical procedure for years. Constructing on the rising momentum, ForSight has constructed an unimaginable workforce of technical specialists and traders to assist us attain our highest potential. This contains the current addition of “the daddy of robotic surgical procedure,” Dr. Fred Moll (founding father of Intuitive Surgical), to our Board of Administrators, our ongoing help from board advisor Rony Abovitz, founding father of MAKO, main ophthalmic surgeons that make up our Medical Advisory Board, and our VC companions. The sky is the restrict for the potential of medical robotics, and our imaginative and prescient is to harness the facility of robotics, AI, and automation to rework the surgical robotics house.
ForSight Robotics goals to “democratize entry to ophthalmic surgical procedures.” How do you outline success in attaining this aim?
In the end, we could have reached our aim when the demand for ophthalmic surgeons eases, and robotic surgical procedure is obtainable globally. To drive success, we’re centered on three key metrics.
First, ophthalmic coaching time must be diminished, and the educational curve must be shortened. It takes at the least 15 years for ophthalmic surgeons to attain peak surgical efficiency. That is too lengthy of a runway to handle the rising demand for cataract and different eye surgical procedures in ageing adults. With ForSight’s ORYOM™ Platform, surgeons can undertake the expertise in a number of classes and function with the platform shortly thereafter, thus considerably reducing the educational time.
Second, two-thirds of ophthalmic surgeons expertise bodily well being points brought on by poor ergonomics. Points akin to musculoskeletal, again, and neck ache result in 15% of eye surgeons retiring early. ForSight’s ORYOM™ Platform scales down a surgeon’s hand actions, rising accuracy and ergonomic consolation that decreases a surgeon’s cognitive and bodily stress and fatigue, thus rising their working profession.
Third, we goal to extend a supplier’s surgical throughput by thrice. Proper now, a full cataract surgical procedure from begin to end takes round quarter-hour. Surgeons work across the clock within the working room to finish as many surgical procedures as attainable in a given day to maximise their time within the working room. ForSight’s ORYOM™ Platform decreases the general process time, thus rising the variety of surgical procedures that may be accomplished in a single day and over time, rising the variety of circumstances that may be achieved.
Your expertise is described as providing “superhuman” precision and scalability. Are you able to clarify how AI and robotics allow this functionality in follow?
Our robotic surgical procedure platform enhances the working course of by using AI-based algorithms and micromechanics to ship micron-level precision. Through the process, the platform supplies actionable insights to surgeons by way of embedded sensors, cameras, and kinematics to enhance total surgical approach. ForSight’s ORYOM™ Platform is constructed with 14 levels of freedom to ship full entry for surgeons to achieve each level with the human eye. Future iterations of the platform will permit for the efficiency of each anterior and posterior procedures, furthering ForSight’s imaginative and prescient and impression.
Robotics permits us to dial in on a selected motion and standardize it throughout all sufferers. By offering real-time 3D picture steerage and augmentation of the procedures, surgeons can have a extra holistic view of the process and enhance their execution. Along with real-time analytics, we have scaled down the hand actions required for the process, diminished the hand tremors, and integrated no-fly zones to extend total surgical accuracy and precision.
What makes the ORYOM™ Platform distinctive in comparison with different robotic surgical procedure options at present out there?
The ORYOM™ Platform is the primary robotic ophthalmic platform for cataract and different widespread eye illnesses, which supplies important benefits for each sufferers and surgeons. To handle the bodily stress surgeons expertise throughout surgical procedure and stop early retirement as a consequence of bodily points, we centered on creating ergonomic options that deal with these stressors, together with display screen/desk positioning, how a surgeon handles the instruments, and built-in impartial positioning. We have additionally embedded haptic capabilities, together with vibrations, resistance, and different sensory elements, into the expertise for an enhanced surgical expertise.
Different distinctive options of the ORYOM™ Platform embrace decreasing the general process time, which allows practitioners to function on extra sufferers in a single day and carry out extra cataract surgical procedures over time. Moreover, to make sure mass adoption amongst surgeons, we have created a coaching program that enables practitioners to coach on the platform and function with the expertise with a considerably shorter studying curve, whereas sustaining excessive surgical accuracy.
How does ForSight Robotics plan to handle the disparity in entry to eye surgeons between prosperous and low-income international locations?
As a worldwide firm, we goal to develop ophthalmic surgical procedure for all. We’re focusing on the US market first as a result of, traditionally, expertise adopted within the US tends to result in success in different markets. On the similar time, we’re international locations akin to India, China, and the Center East that are investing of their healthcare programs to beat the shortage of infrastructure. By focusing on these markets, we are able to develop entry and assets to international locations which have greater populations needing care. Additional, by rising a present surgeon’s capability, we are able to develop entry to a better inhabitants of sufferers.
With cataracts being a number one reason behind blindness globally, what’s ForSight Robotics’ long-term imaginative and prescient for eradicating preventable blindness?
In creating the ORYOM™ Platform, our aim is to develop and scale our robotic surgical procedure platform to achieve extra practitioners and in flip, extra sufferers. The ORYOM™ Platform was developed from the bottom up, guaranteeing that our robotic programs are constructed to achieve each level inside the eye. We’re starting by focusing on cataract, the commonest medical process with over 600M sufferers worldwide, after which search to develop to handle different eye illnesses and sort out different procedures that demand excessive dexterity from surgeons. Sooner or later, we can even advance automation in robotic surgical procedure as a way to enhance international entry to high quality surgical eye care.
What position do partnerships with hospitals and medical professionals play within the adoption of the ORYOM™ Platform?
Collaboration with hospitals, clinics, and practitioners allows us to supply one of the best surgical care to vision-impaired sufferers. This 12 months, Dr. Fred Moll, the founding father of Intuitive Surgical, joined our board of administrators to help ForSight’s subsequent development part, together with scaling the corporate globally. Working alongside Dr. Moll and our skilled workforce, we’re constructing strategic partnerships inside the healthcare system to supply vision-saving ophthalmic surgical procedure to sufferers.
As of February 2025, the ORYOM™ Platform has been optimized and validated by over two dozen surgeons who’ve efficiently carried out over 200 full robotic cataract procedures on an animal eye mannequin. We’re working intently with main ophthalmic surgeons worldwide to make sure that our expertise solutions surgeons’ wants.
What are your ideas on Nvidia’s and OpenAI’s current developments in robotics, and the way would possibly these developments impression ForSight’s future?
It is an thrilling time to be a robotics founder. Current bulletins from Nvidia and OpenAI underscore how quickly AI is remodeling robotics and rising funding throughout the business. As robotic expertise advances, AI and automation will proceed to play a significant position in growing ForSight’s expertise, with the aim of totally automating repetitive surgical duties sooner or later.
Nvidia’s robotics are skilled utilizing giant open-source LLMs together with thousands and thousands of hours of simulations and real-world knowledge. It is a big leap ahead in coaching machines on perceived environments for driving and humanoids, permitting embodied AI to progress quicker. For surgical robotics, we’ll see an elevated use of AI to research giant quantities of real-world knowledge whereas coaching future robotic programs in simulated environments.
All of those developments profit the sphere of robotics as a complete, and could have a constructive impression on the sphere of robotic surgical procedure as nicely. The spectacular velocity at which these main firms are growing novel AI tech could have a web constructive impression on so many industries, and also will enhance our objectives of delivering more practical and safer surgical procedures, quicker.
Are you able to share any insights on how the mixing of cognitive knowledge analytics improves surgical outcomes with ORYOM™?
General, superior applied sciences which might be based mostly on giant knowledge units and AI analytics can present surgeons with insights into their methods, and supply new and optimized approaches by figuring out patterns and understanding of the “large image” that won’t have been out there beforehand. Cognitive knowledge analytics learns from giant knowledge units as a way to present real-time steerage – bettering imaging suggestions and decision-making to enhance surgical precision. By analyzing real-time affected person knowledge, AI-based algorithms can present the surgeon with patient-specific surgical optimization. This could enhance accuracy and cut back the chance of errors that may happen in guide operations. As well as, pre- and post-op knowledge evaluation can present tailor-made approaches for sufferers.
ForSight is engaged on finding out giant knowledge units to enhance surgical precision with the ORYOM™ Platform. That is achieved by real-time picture steerage, which might present surgeons with a extra complete surgical image and smaller particulars that will have been missed, together with different knowledge analytics strategies to enhance coaching and execution, thus enhancing each the affected person and surgeon expertise.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to ForSight Robotics.
