36 | EYEWORLD | SUMMER 2026
ATARACT
C
"The robots are going to have to prove that
they're at least as good as humans, if not better,
and safer. And we're going to have to prove that
patients will trust them," Dr. Waltz said. "What
we've shown is that in the right circumstances,
the robot can work. We haven't shown that the
robot will work at a high enough efficiency and
safety yet, but we got through 10 patients with
no complications, so that's a positive sign."
to do the surgery as planned. This change of
plan will require a human to be around and to
be ready to do the job," Dr. Malyugin said.
"Longer term, I am hoping that fully
autonomous robotic surgery could mitigate
the growing burden of cataract blindness and
disability in low- to middle-income countries,
which already have critical shortages of well-
trained surgeons," Dr. Chang said. "For the
governments of these countries, this could be a
much faster, efficient, and cost-effective way to
scale the volume of quality cataract surgery. The
same hardware and software would be used to
achieve similar outcomes whether the procedure
was performed in a low-income country or in
the U.S."
Dr. Waltz also pointed to phacoemulsifica-
tion developed by Charles Kelman, MD, in the
mid-1960s and how it took 30 years before it
was common practice. A similar refinement and
adoption period would take place for robotic
cataract surgery, he said.
continued from page 35
Your notes, already done.
EVAA Scribe captures clinical conversations in real
time and generates your SOAP notes.
No screen switching.
No after-hours charting.
Designed for accurate
ophthalmology documentation.
See EVAA Scribe in action at EVAA.AI
A symposium on this
topic, "Robotic Surgery:
How Soon and How Good
Will It Be?," was presented
at the 2026 ASCRS Annual
Meeting in April. Scan
here to read a recap of the
symposium on www.EyeWorld.org.
