NEW YORK & PARIS & SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)-- Sept. 20, 2001--

-- IRCAD/European Institute of Telesurgery, France Telecom and Computer Motion Announce that Surgeons in New York Successfully Operated on a Patient in France Using Surgical Robots and a High-Speed Fiberoptic Solution

IRCAD/European Institute of Telesurgery (EITS), France Telecom (NYSE:FTE), and Computer Motion Inc. (Nasdaq:RBOT) today announced that on Sept. 7, a 68 year-old woman in Strasbourg, France, became the first patient in history to receive a complete telesurgery procedure performed by surgeons nearly 4,000 miles away.

Operating from a France Telecom/Equant center in New York, Professor Jacques Marescaux, M.D. of the European Institute of Telesurgery (EITS) and Dr. Michel Gagner of New York performed a complete laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) on the patient in Strasbourg at the Hospital Civil/I.R.C.A.D. The telecoms solution between the surgeons and the robotic system enabling such a procedure was provided by an end-to-end high-speed fiberoptic service deployed by several France Telecom group entities. From New York, surgeons used the Computer Motion Zeus(R)(TM) Robotic Surgical System to control the surgical instruments on the patient in France.

While some parts of this system are approved by the FDA for use on patients in the U.S. in a non-remote scenario, the system used in this proof-of-concept has not been approved for commercial release by the FDA. This system has been CE-marked for commercial distribution in Europe.

The patient was released from the hospital approximately 48 hours after surgery and reported a return to normal activity the following week.

Professor Marescaux attributes the patient's remarkable recovery to the less traumatic, minimally invasive approach used in the demonstration, and marks the beginning of a new age of telesurgery.

"We can now extend the reach of the surgeon so that an expert can intervene any place in the world," said Prof. Marescaux, who is founder and president of the Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l'Appareil Digestif (IRCAD) and the European Institute of Telesurgery (EITS) in Strasbourg. "I felt as comfortable operating on my patient as if I had been in the room. But the knowledge of the level of medical science and technology that enabled the surgery are a landmark for all medical treatment and training to come."

"France Telecom has always been enthusiastic about supporting the development of exciting new technologies such as this," said Jean-Pierre Temime, director of Marketing for France Telecom Enterprise Services. "This was a tremendously challenging project, since we had to apply our expertise in high-speed services within an extremely exacting environment in terms of the reliability and security needed. These are in fact the same services we deliver every day to equally demanding corporate customers. This world first prefigures a host of other tremendously promising applications that will be possible using high-speed telecommunications services that are already in place. And we're not talking about utopian dreams but real, concrete solutions that can be deployed right now."

"Today's announcement is the first step towards the convergence of technology and medical science that will treat patients with less pain and faster recovery, anywhere in the world," stated Robert W. Duggan, chairman and CEO of Computer Motion. "The participants believe that this demonstration has the potential to interest medical professionals throughout the world in the newest applications of interventional telemedicine." Duggan added: "Future explorations into the potential of telesurgery and tele-collaborative surgeon training will be measured by the benchmarks established by this event. We are very pleased to have EITS and France Telecom as our partners on this project and are proud that our products are making significant inroads in the emerging field of tele-collaborative surgery."

"I strongly believe that advances in telemedicine will bring many positive changes to patient care," said Yulun Wang, PhD, founder and chief technical officer of Computer Motion. "The obvious benefits are just now being discovered as we reduce the barriers of distance between practitioner and patient. In the near term, I see this partnership of technology, communication, and medicine creating significant new means for training doctors." Dr. Wang continued, "The adoption of advanced minimally invasive procedures continues to be the engine that drives Computer Motion's research and development efforts. The goal of these efforts is to provide improved patient outcomes and quality of life across a broad range of surgical disciplines. It is an exciting opportunity to apply these advances to a larger patient population, freed from the limits of time and distance. Computer Motion is uniquely positioned to assist with the necessary surgeon training and education, as well as application of these new techniques in the operating room. No other company offers this broad range of solutions to today's health-care professional."

The participants believe that this demonstration has the potential to interest medical professionals throughout the world in the newest applications of interventional telemedicine. The teams hope that future applications will have the potential for bringing dramatic changes to the delivery of patient care.

The success of the demonstration on a human patient marks this moment in history as the first-ever successful collaboration of its kind between medicine, advanced technology, and telecommunications. Future explorations into the potential of telesurgery and tele-collaborative surgeon training will be measured by the benchmarks established by this event.

Commenting on the operation, Professor Marescaux said: "I believe that this demonstration of the feasibility of a completely safe remotely performed surgical procedure -- and notably the first trans-Atlantic operation -- ushers in the third revolution we've seen in the field of surgery in the past 10 years.

"The first was the arrival of minimally invasive surgery, enabling procedures to be performed with guidance by a camera, meaning that the abdomen and thorax do not have to be opened. The second was the introduction of computer-assisted surgery, where sophisticated software algorithms enhance the safety of the surgeon's movements during a procedure, rendering them more accurate, while introducing the concept of distance between the surgeon and the patient. It was thus a natural extrapolation to imagine that this distance -- currently several meters in the operating room -- could potentially be up to several thousand kilometers.

"This is what we have just demonstrated thanks to the combined technical prowess of Computer Motion, which created the digital robot required, and France Telecom, which was able to deploy a broadband transmission service with optimized compression, thus limiting the time delay between the command of the action and its return on the monitor to a level that is virtually imperceptible to the human eye.

"The demonstration of the feasibility of a trans-Atlantic procedure -- dubbed `Operation Lindbergh' -- is a richly symbolic milestone. It lays the foundations for the globalization of surgical procedures, making it possible to imagine that a surgeon could perform an operation on a patient anywhere in the world."

The France Telecom group provided an end-to-end high-speed fiberoptic service that enabled the surgeon to work with virtually no time delay between the instant he manipulated the robot controls in New York, and saw the result on the patient in France.

Despite a distance of about 4,000 miles (7,000 kilometers), it was imperative that a constant time delay of less than 200 milliseconds be maintained between the surgeon's movements and the return video image displayed on his screen. This is especially challenging since the time delay includes video coding/decoding and signal transmission time.

France Telecom's high-speed service linked with the solutions developed by France Telecom R&D engineers made it possible to achieve an average time delay of 150 milliseconds. This represents a decisive breakthrough for telesurgery, which previously was strongly limited due to the time delay problem.

For France Telecom, meeting this daunting challenge meant indeed guaranteeing the quality, reliability and security of the transmission speeds. Drawing on the expertise of Equant in end-to-end high-speed services, the France Telecom group linked all of the equipment (video camera, robotic system, video conference, telephone) over a trans-Atlantic high-bandwidth fiberoptic service (10 megabits per second).

"To support the success of this proof-of-concept, we had to go beyond the technical challenges of providing flawless service quality, reliability and security," commented Tom Wyrick, vice president, Equant North America. "By deploying an end-to-end fully managed solution, we were able to deliver critical applications, such as broadcast-quality video, secure ATM data transmission, IP telephony, videoconferencing and LAN interconnection, thus eliminating the distance barrier between patient and surgeon. We are proud to be a partner in the world's first trans-Atlantic telesurgery procedure and applaud the teamwork present both within the France Telecom group and with our distinguished partners."

While unique in itself, the operation underscores two of the areas that are driving the use of high-speed services -- video and new work methods. Video is an increasingly pivotal communications resource thanks to the improved quality that is possible with high-speed services.

At the same time, the performance of these services is encouraging the development of collaborative working, teleworking, tele-information and mobility, eliminating constraints of time and space.

Project partners

IRCAD

IRCAD (Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l'Appareil Digestif Institute for Research into Cancer of the Digestive System) has since 1994 worked on applying basic cancer research and developing new medical technologies. In 1993, recognizing that surgery was making a fast and ineluctable transition from the industrial era to the computer era, Professor Jacques Marescaux created an innovative private sector organization dedicated to leveraging the value of basic cancer research, with IRCAD, and developing new computer-based technologies for surgery, with EITS.

The idea was to create a center where surgeons, physicians, researchers, engineers and computer specialists could combine their talents at a single site.

This initiative aimed to meet a two-fold challenge: innovate to demonstrate European capability for creativity and innovation in a sector where the United States already enjoyed a reputation for excellence, and develop high-level training. Indeed, expanding the use of new technologies in this area is intimately linked to providing high-level training.

IRCAD-EITS has grown into a world-class surgical training institution, considered one of the top in the world. This success is reflected in the number and diverse origins of the surgeons who enroll for its courses. The center welcomes more than 3,000 surgeons annually from three continents, who receive training thanks to the collaboration of an international team of 800 experts.

IRCAD-EITS received financial support from Axians.

France Telecom

France Telecom is one of the world's leading telecommunications carriers, with over 86 million customers on the five continents (220 countries and territories) and consolidated operating revenues of 33.7 billion Euro for 2000 (20.4 billion Euro at June 30, 2001).

Through its major international brands, including Orange, Wanadoo, Equant and GlobeCast, and through France Telecom R&D for innovation, France Telecom provides businesses, consumers and other carriers with a complete portfolio of solutions that spans local, long-distance and international telephony, wireless, Internet, multimedia, data, broadcast and cable TV services.

France Telecom is the second-largest wireless operator and the number three Internet service provider in Europe, and a world leader in telecommunications solutions for multinational corporations. France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges.

Computer Motion Inc.

Computer Motion is a high-tech medical device company evolving surgical practices to enhance patient lives. The company develops, manufactures and markets proprietary computer-enhanced and robotic surgical systems, which enhance surgeons' capabilities, improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Computer Motion's products include the voice-controlled AESOP(R) Endoscope Positioner, the first FDA-cleared surgical robot; the HERMES(TM) Control Center, a centralized system which enables the surgeon to voice control a network of "smart" medical devices; the Socrates(TM) Telecollaborative System for surgeon mentoring, training, and practice collaborations; and the ZEUS(R)(TM) Robotic Surgical System for new minimally invasive microsurgery procedures, such as endoscopic, beating heart bypass surgery.

The ZEUS System is CE-Marked. Computer Motion has completed an FDA-approved Phase 1 Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) for: coronary bypass, general laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgery, as well as mitral valve surgery and fallopian tube reanastomosis for clearance of the ZEUS System.

This news release contains forward-looking statements concerning the company's business and products. Actual results may differ materially depending on a number of risk factors, including the risks of competition and competing technologies, duration or suspension of clinical studies, regulatory clearances and approvals, and physician, hospital and payor acceptance of the company's products. These factors and other risks inherent in the company's business are described from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K. The company undertakes no obligation to revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

IRCAD European Institute for Telesurgery (EITS) Web site: http://www.eits.org/

France Telecom Web site: http://www.francetelecom.com/

Computer Motion Inc. Web site: http://www.computermotion.com/