It’s not every day that a teen gets to operate a robotic surgical device.
On Monday, Dr. May-Anh Nguyen, a minimally invasive surgeon at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, helped guide Ivana, 13, a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley, through a surgical skills exercise using the da Vinci surgical robot.
In addition to introducing nearly 40 Boys & Girls Clubs kids between fourth grade and high school to potential careers in healthcare, the interactive event held in the hospital lobby aimed to demystify robotic surgery.
“We like to call it robotic-assisted,” said Dr. Kristine Borrison, medical director of the Robotic-Assisted Surgery Program at Good Samaritan Hospital. “The robot doesn’t do any surgery. The surgeon does all the surgery. So, it’s another tool.”
In the operating room, the surgeon sits at a nearby video console and manipulates instruments that translate their hand motions into precise instrument movements within the patient’s body.
“Many young people don’t realize that some of the same skills they use every day while gaming are important in robotic-assisted surgery,” said Borrison in a statement.
Ivana said that she is not a video gamer but would still like to be a doctor.
A multibillion-dollar industry
What the Boys & Girls Clubs students may not know is that robotic-assisted surgery is a growing multibillion-dollar industry. Intuitive, the Sunnyvale medical device company that makes the da Vinci robotic system, posted 2026 first quarter revenue of $2.8 billion, a 23% increase from 2025.
The da Vinci robotic system costs between $700,000 and $3.1 million, depending on the model, configuration and location of the buyer, according to Intuitive’s 2025 annual report. This cost does not include annual service fees, which range between $95,000 and $225,000, according to the 2025 report. Good Samaritan Hospital has four da Vinci robotic systems.
In response to a question about the costs of robotic-assisted surgery, Borrison said that patients recover faster, and cost savings are manifested in shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to work.
Since 2010, the surgeons at Good Samaritan Hospital have performed more than 7,000 robotic-assisted surgeries. Thirty-four surgeons at the hospital perform robotic-assisted operations.
Dr. Avery Joseph, a minimally invasive surgeon at Good Samaritan Hospital who completed a surgical residency two years ago, said that the hospital’s capacity for robotic-assisted surgery was attractive.
“I was kind of that first generation of being fully trained on the robot,” Joseph said. “I know all of us that were looking for jobs said, ‘I won’t go to a hospital that doesn’t have the robot. I want that technology. I think it benefits my patients.’”
Robotic-assisted surgery is not without its complications. Complications can include nerve and soft tissue injuries to the patient due to longer operating times, robot malfunction and postoperative infections, according to a 2020 review in the medical journal Surgical Clinics of North America.
Joseph recommended that before agreeing to robotic-assisted surgery, patients ask their surgeons the following questions — how many robotic-assisted cases have they completed; is robotic-assisted surgery their preferred method; and what are the outcomes, including complications, of their patients who underwent robotic-assisted surgery.
