Published : 25 February, 2026
The coverage highlights a World Cancer Day 2026 virtual session titled “Operating Across Distance: How Tele-Surgery Is Bringing Cancer Care to India’s Last Mile,” which explored how advancements in tele-surgery and technology-enabled robotic platforms are breaking geographical barriers to expand access to advanced cancer treatment across underserved and remote regions of India. The discussion featured Dr. (Prof.) Sudhir Kumar Rawal, Medical Director and Chief of Genito-Uro Oncology Services at RGCIRC, who explained that tele-surgery allows expert surgeons to operate from distant locations, democratising surgical expertise and improving timely access to quality care. He noted that his team has successfully conducted over 100 tele-surgery procedures with outcomes comparable to conventional robotic surgery and underscored the importance of high-speed connectivity, indigenous robotics like the cost-effective SSI Mantra, and supportive policies to scale this model. The session stressed that integrating tele-surgery into mainstream oncology could bring precision cancer care to “last-mile” populations and transform how surgical oncology is delivered nationwide, provided there is broader institutional and governmental support.
RGCIRC, Niti Bagh
