Records of Think Surgical, Inc.
Object Details
- Creator
- Think Surgical, Inc. (Fremont, California)
- Names
- Bargar, William L.
- Erbe, Klaus
- Foley, Robert
- Forstein, Micah
- Engineer
- Hanson, Randall
- Names
- Nacion, Ramon
- Newcomb, Alex
- Engineer
- Whiseant, Steve
- Zuhars, Joel
- Topic
- Inventions -- 20th century
- Inventions -- 21st century
- Inventors -- 20th century
- Inventors -- 21st century
- Medical Equipment
- Medical innovations
- Orthopedics
- Provenance
- Collection donated by Think Surgical, Inc. through Dr. Mun In-Ki, CEO and President, April 2016.
- Creator
- Think Surgical, Inc. (Fremont, California)
- See more items in
- Records of Think Surgical, Inc.
- Summary
- The collection documents the development of ROBODOC™, the first robot to perform surgery on a human in the United States through correspondence, memoranda, press clippings, press releases, engineering drawings, regulatory policies and procedures, photographs, and audiovisual materials.
- Accruals
- 152 files (15 .WAV files and 137 .mov files) were transferred from the Division of Medicine and Science to the Archives Center in October 2022.
- Historical
- ROBODOC™ was the first robot to perform surgery in the United States. It was developed in 1986 by IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and researchers at the University of California, Davis. They formed a collaborative initiative to develop a surgical device for Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA). The team included William Bargar, M.D., Howard "Hap" Paul, D.V.M (1949- 1993), and engineers, Brent Mittelstadt and Peter Kazanides. See US Patent 5,769,092 for Computer-aided system for revision total hip replacement surgery and US Patent 5,806,518 for Method and system of positioning surgical robot, 1998. The original company, Integrated Surgical Systems (ISS) was incorporated in 1990. The goal of ISS was to create a robotic surgical system that would redefine precision joint replacement procedures. Drilling into bone by hand is not always precise, and often requires glue to fill in empty spaces. Additionally there is a danger the bone will splinter. In this regard, ROBODOC is similar to computer-controlled machine tools. ROBODOC "mills" the bone or joint for accurate fitting similar to machine tools. In May of 1990 the device was successfully tested on dogs. Since 1998 when it received 510 (K) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Total Hip Arthroplasty over 28,000 procedures have been performed worldwide. ROBODOC™ was eventually sold in 2007 to Novatrix Biomedical, Inc. which formed Curexo Medical, Inc. to handle the acquisition of Integrated Surgical Systems, Inc. (ISS). ISS became THINK Surgical, Inc. in 2014.
- Extent
- 5.5 Cubic feet (17 boxes, 1 map folder, digital files)
- Date
- 1983-2010
- bulk 1991-1994
- Archival Repository
- Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Identifier
- NMAH.AC.1378
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Arrangement
- The collection is divided into six series. Series 1: Project History and Background Materials, 1985-2003 Series 2: Engineering Materials, 1989-2000, bulk 1991-1993 Series 3: User Guides, 1991-2001 Series 4: Food and Drug Administration, 1987-2001 Series 5: Press Clippings, 1983-2010 Series 6: Audiovisual Materials, 1988-2009
- Processing Information
- Collection processed by Alison Oswald, archivist, 2016.
- Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Scope and Contents
- The collection documents the development of ROBODOC™, a robotic surgical system that would redefine precision joint replacement procedures. The collection contains correspondence, memoranda, press clippings, press releases, engineering drawings, regulatory policies and procedures, photographs, and audiovisual materials documenting the development of the ROBODOC™. The collection is strong in documentation about regulatory policies and procedures the company undertook for approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
- Restrictions
- Collection is open for research.
- Related Materials
- Materials in the Archives Center Odex I Walking Robot Collection (AC0203) Massie/McLurkin Innovative Lives Presentation and Interviews (AC0603) Computer oral History Collection (AC0196) Gerber Scientific Instrument Company Records (AC0929)
- Record ID
- ebl-1503510335798-1503510335805-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
In the Collection
Pages
Pages
View Slideshow
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.