ViSE Researchers Awarded NIH R01 for Robotic Skull Base Surgery
A team of ViSE researchers including Dr. Kyle Weaver, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Dr. Paul Russell, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology led by Dr. Robert Webster, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering were recently awarded a National Institutes of Health R01 grant to support a project entitled “Robotic Natural Orifice Skull Base Surgery.”
The objective of this project is to develop a new robotic system to assist surgeons with transnasal surgery. The goal of this new robot is to reduce the invasiveness and increase the safety of surgical procedures at the skull base. This is expected to bring the proven clinical benefits of minimally invasive surgery to many more people by making the surgery easier for surgeons to accomplish safely. This project involves researchers at Vanderbilt from Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Otolaryngology, and Neurological Surgery, exemplifying the collaborative environment at Vanderbilt and within ViSE, where engineers and surgeons work closely to solve challenging medical problems.