Newswise — We are pleased to invite you to Advances in Heart Surgery with Robotic-Assisted Mitral Valve Repair, featuring researchers who will present their research and answer questions. This virtual briefing will explore the clinical advantages of single-port robotic technology used in heart surgery. Surgeons have recently incorporated enhanced visualization of the surgical field and greater precision and dexterity for performing complex intracardiac procedures such as mitral valve repair. Corewell Health physician, Dr. Rakesh Suri will discuss the development of this pioneering technique and share insights into its impact on the future of robotic cardiac surgery. Reporters will be able to ask questions and speak with a recent heart surgery patient undergoing a procedure utilizing these innovative techniques. 

Event Information

Date: July 23, 2026

Time: 12:00 PM ET

Who: Dr. Rakesh Suri, along with a recent heart surgery patient, Patrick O’Brien

Format: Online Webinar

TRANSCRIPT: 

Thom Canalichio: Hello and welcome to today’s Newswise Live event. Today we have a virtual press briefing with a doctor and one of his patients from Corewell Health, and they will be talking about robot-assisted heart surgery, performing some of the latest techniques for mitral valve replacement or repair with this kind of technology, and we invite media to ask any questions that you might have. Chat those to me, and we will relay those to the speakers. I’d like to start by introducing Dr. Suri. Dr. Suri, tell everyone kind of your name and job title, and any other details sort of about your position there, and we’ll get into some of the details about this new technology you’re using in the operating room.

Dr Rakesh Suri: Thank you, Thom. It’s wonderful to be here with you and your guests today, and of course our remarkable patient, Patrick. I’m a practicing heart surgeon at Corewell Health East in Michigan, centered in Royal Oak, and I’m regional director of cardiac surgical robotics. And in even so, it’s a pleasure to be with you today.

TC: Thank you. So, tell us for the listener who may not be very familiar with some of these details, what should patients and the public know about using this kind of robotic-assisted technology? The types of heart surgeries that it’s useful for, and in particular the mitral valve repair that you have some experience with recently, catch everyone up to the same page for those who might not rely about how some of that works.

RS: Will do. So the most important first message is that when you put 100 people in a room. You look across the audience, whether it’s at church or at work, or you know, and even in an airport. Three to five of those 100 people will have this condition, and they don’t even know they have it. And it’s called mitral valve prolapse. And what that really means to the lay public when people hear about it, they may have a murmur, or their family member may have had a heart valve condition, or they may have developed atrial fibrillation, or heart failure, or even sudden death. These are all things that happen. Very common condition in the community. So the first message is: we need to who has this and be able to see what’s going on inside the heart, and that’s exactly how Patrick came to us. The next important thing is once we know of those three to five people out of 100 having this condition, what do we do about it? People are scared. Something’s wrong with my heart, but I feel normal, and I work normally, and I have a busy life, and I have children, I have parents to take care of, etc. Everybody has this story, and the most important thing is to tell people that we’re healthy for longer and live as long as you can. So this is really a longevity story and feeling better story. Then the third thing is, well, how do we fix it? And the public is bombarded with information from the perspectives of you know heart surgery back in the 1970s and 80s and even 90s, where there was a big incision in the middle of the chest. Glad to say that’s not the case today at many centers like ours. In addition, there’s new minimally invasive techniques that allow a full correction of the heart problem without even opening the chest, and that’s what we’re here talking about today-the least to fix the heart that we’ve ever had in the history of medicine.

TC: Doctor Suri, tell us also then about this single port aspect of the process. This is, I think, maybe one of the innovations that people would like to hear about and how that can be such an improvement over that big incision that you described was sort of the traditional method, and you know what inspired you to get into this as part of the technique, and and bring it from concept to actual application.

RS: Great. Well, I’d love to talk tell people a little bit about that. So the first thing that we need to think about when we come to the realization that we have a problem with the mitral valve, as I said, is what do we do about it? How are we going to fix it? So important to seek out a surgeon and a surgical team at a center of excellence that does these things because this is a very complex procedure: fixing the mitral valve, saving the mitral valve, mitral valve repair. These are all synonyms for the same thing. The body loves its own tissue, and it’s like taking your coat that’s moth-eaten into the tailor. You need to find an expert who can fix it up and make it look beautiful again. The mitral valve is extremely important because this is one of the highest pressure chambers in the entire body. So this valve has to close properly. We like to tell patients it’s like a door closing on a frame. When there’s mitral valve prolapse or regurgitation, the door passes the frame, and therefore the wind in a door analogy goes in and out of the house and damages the house. In the heart, it’s the same with the mitral valve. If the mitral valve is not closing, the blood goes backwards into the lungs and floods the lungs, leads to heart failure, atrial fibrillation, a rhythm problem, sudden death, stroke, and a whole bunch of other problems. So we need to be able to get that patient to a center of excellence where they focus on valve repair, such as we’re focusing on here, where we have an over 99% chance of saving a patient’s valve. Then, when we know and we explain to the patient, the good news is that we found the condition, we can save your valve. The third is how do we do it? Every patient is different. In medicine, we perform individualized medicine with advanced diagnostics. We decide what is best for that patient and explain what is best. So in Patrick’s case, he was a candidate for the least invasive type of heart surgery called robotic mitral valve repair that simply, in historic terms, before June, utilized five ports, and port is an incision between the width of my finger, where the camera and all the instruments slide in in the right chest to the heart, and and once the heart is shut off by going on the heart-lung bypass machine, these instruments then open the heart very precisely, and utilizing sewing and nipping and tucking, are able to fix this heart so that it looks as beautiful and as normal as the day you were born. That historically required five incisions, and indeed across the world, robotic heart surgery is done in a few specialized center, utilizing five incisions about the size of my finger or slightly bigger. But the current approach, there is a new type of robot that we have access to at Corewell Health East called the single port robot or the SP system. What is remarkable about this system is that all of these instruments, the camera and all of the hands, so to speak, that we utilize to perform this surgery-meaning me, the surgeon, and the team perform it-all go through one port. It’s about the size of two fingers, but it’s one hole that is between the ribs that the access port, the instrument insertion port slides between the ribs. No bone breaking, no muscle cutting, and therefore less pain for the patient. Once this aggregate or this combined port is in the chest, the arms fan out almost like a cobra, and they’re able to come together and work to do exactly as I said: to nip, to cut, and to sew in a very precise way with micro instruments smaller than the the size of our fingers and 10 times high definition three dimensional magnification to be able to see the valve and precisely perform a repair to fix that valve to look like it the day you were born, then when we’re done, the instruments merely slide out of the chest and we’re able to close not only that that that single port where all the instruments and the cameras go through, but also one small access port again, about the size of a finger, and therefore Patrick was able to have for the first time in the world a fully comprehensive, a full complete mitral valve repair and annuloplasty, utilizing the techniques we’ve perfected over 20 years through two small cuts. What are the advantages? Well, less pain, less bleeding, less atrial fibrillation, rhythm problems. In other words, shorter hospital stay. Patrick was walking around the night of surgery and left on the third day after surgery, and quicker recovery. He can tell you that during this Michigan-wide power outage over July 4 weekend, when we called to check on him, he was helping his family set up a generator. It’s only four days after heart surgery. It’s truly remarkable. We have never seen anything like this in the care of the heart or heart surgery in our careers.

TC: Wow, that’s really great to hear about how effective that has been. And since you mentioned your patient, let’s introduce him, Patrick O’Brien, recent mitral valve repair patient, and then a few days later, setting up a generator. Patrick, how are you feeling?

Patrick O’Brien: I feel great, Thom. Thank you for having me today.

TC: Well, it’s really, really helpful and generous of you to share your experience working with Dr. Suri and your recovery from this procedure. How do you feel about how your recovery has been going, and what went through your mind about you know learning about the need for this procedure and how you felt about this new technology and technique, as Dr. Suri kind of, I’m sure, guided you through how he would do it. 

POB: Yeah. So to start with, I’m three weeks out of surgery, and I feel like I’m 98. I mean, I feel great. I sometimes have to remind myself that I did in fact have heart surgery, and I get reminded that by Dr. Suri and Nurse April and others that I talk to because when you feel that good. Sometimes you might try to do things you shouldn’t do. So I’m trying to pace myself a little bit, but started cardiac rehab, and I feel fantastic.The transition from the day of surgery to the day I left was an amazing three days, and and then the week first week home just went from you know cautiously optimistic to feeling like so close to 100% I felt like I could go back to work last week. So that being said, go back to when when this all started, you know, originally, eight years ago, I went to see a new primary care physician, and he he noticed I had a heart murmur, and I had no idea, I had no symptoms, I had no trouble with my heart, so they they did a ultrasound of my heart just to take a look at it and found that in fact I did have mitral valve prolapse, but with at that time mild regurgitation, which was not I I was told was not something to be too concerned about at the time, but should keep an eye on it. And and with that, you know, I kind of put it in the back of my head and just forgot about it basically for a few years until a couple years ago. I started having symptoms, and the symptoms: heart palpitations and lightheadedness, and you know, heart racing, sometimes pounding, and I would I would mention it to my wife, and she was constantly telling me you have to get it checked out, and I put it off and put it off. When I finally did come to doctor, got referred to Michael Gallagher, my cardiologist, who is a fantastic cardiologist, and he is connected with Dr. Suri, and explained to me about the potential for robotic valve repair, and I had never heard of it. I had no idea what it was. Sounded fascinating to me. Set up a meeting with Dr. Suri and got to meet him. And in the meantime, had looked up his resume, which was absolutely incredible. Very very well known and successful and famous doctor for what he does, and and and a great all-around guy to boot. Met with him, he explained to me that they had been working on and practicing this potential for using a single port robotic instrument for the surgery, and asked if I would be interested in being the first person to be the patient. And I, you know, I didn’t even hesitate. I was thrilled at the possibility, knowing the you know super high success rate of robotic surgeries. Never really had a doubt in my mind that it was something I wouldn’t want to do. And you know, being able to avoid having open heart surgery-I mean, it’s a slam dunk to want to go robotically. So the rest was history. There were you know there were some things I had to the team and the hospital the department they check and they double check and they triple check and then they check some more. They want to make sure that you know you are the right person to have the surgery and you know everything is going to go perfectly, and it did. I saw pictures of my repaired valve, and it’s just amazing what Dr. Suri has done for me and his team. So I couldn’t be more grateful.

TC: Fantastic! Thanks for sharing all of that. And looking back on this whole experience, I’m curious to know. I’m sure reporters would love to hear you comment on what you might say to other patients that could use this sort of procedure, and what advice or recommendations would you say about going this route?

POB: Yes, and to be completely upfront, this is why I’m here. I’m not big on going on camera or speaking publicly, but given the opportunity to promote this, and if it helps even one person, it’s absolutely worth doing. I would say anybody, generally speaking, who has any kind of heart issues, any any symptoms, any even you know history, get your heart checked. I mean, it’s one of the most important things in your body, and you need to get checked out. More specifically, for people who have mitral valve problems, I would 100% recommend the if you have the potential to go to a you know a quality care center that provides these robotic surgeries, which you know Corewell here in Southeast Michigan, they are state of the art. They’re on the you know no pun intended cutting edge of these surgeries, and if you have that option, I would recommend it fully, 100%. The recovery time has been so quick. The invasiveness was so minimal. I just  can’t say enough about it, and there’s really nothing to fear. That’s the big thing. Is people, you know, just really quick, I’ll tell you my history. My father back in the 80s had open heart surgery two times within 10 years, triple bypass and then a quadruple, and I remember how difficult it was for him having the surgery. The recovery time was really long, a lot of complications, and you know the thought of the thought of that. I’m sure in a lot of people’s mind they hear heart surgery, and anybody that they knew or heard stories of with open heart surgery like that, it’s pretty daunting and could make you fearful and drag your feet about going to see someone about your heart problems. It’s not like that anymore. Technology has advanced so much. It’s just incredible the things that they can do. And this is one of the places in the world that is right there at the forefront of it, Dr. Suri is one of the best. So I was very fortunate in my timing, pure luck that I happened to go to the doctor when I did got referred to the cardiologist I did and who he was connected with. I couldn’t feel more fortunate than I am right now, and I would say anybody who has the opportunity, go for it, 100%.

TC: Thank you, Patrick. I want to bring Dr. Suri back. Dr. Suri, can you tell us this milestone here for cardiac surgery utilizing this kind of technique and technology? What does that mean for your long term view of making this available to patients, improving the outcomes, the results, the recovery, all that stuff that Patrick talked about about how good of an experience it’s been? What else would you like to share about that?

RS: Yeah, thank you for that. So this is why I came to Corewell Health East, remarkable network of physicians, nurses, administrators, and literally all parts of the team here in Michigan, the east part of Michigan, and of course the west. Excuse me, but the message to patients is the following: This is common. This exists in your home, at your workplace, and in your community. So, as Patrick said, get checked out because you know one thing that he’s shared with us, and I’m sure he’d like to share also, is that people die when they don’t have the right therapy, and these run in families. And Patrick’s mother wasn’t so fortunate in that it was caught too late, and therefore the condition became irreversible, and heart failure ensued, and she sadly passed away. The message to the public is: you can avoid this. We are here for you. Just pick up the phone and call. And number two is that the cardiologist that Patrick spoke about is Dr. Gallagher and his team, Dr. Bloomingdale and others, and what’s special about them is they’ve designed a precision diagnostics platform, an advanced diagnostics platform that is truly cutting edge and never been utilized before for robotic heart surgery. That essentially means that a patient like Patrick or any other patient who’s calling and asking what’s going on with my heart, they can zip through this scanner and have a three-dimensional reconstruction of their heart, their coronary arteries, their chest structures, and their abdomen, and we can determine within minutes whether you’re a candidate, whether that patient is listening to us is a candidate for this cutting-edge surgery, and if not, what are they a candidate for? Some are a candidate for sternotomy. Some have transcatheter options. You’ll hear about that in the media and the public. And some are robotics or other types of minimally invasive. It’s hard for a patient to sort that out. Our multidisciplinary team is really really good at that. The third thing is then let’s just say a patient is a candidate for single port. We’ve spoken about mitral valve disease today, but I’m delighted to report that the team is relentless in continuing to learn and practice. We’ve already practiced in a laboratory setting: single port aortic valve replacement, single port tricuspid valve repair, single port coronary artery bypass grafting for coronary disease, septal myectomy, and other things. So really excited to say that we are just starting. We are just beginning innovating and continuing to advance the frontiers of cardiac care, heart care. The final thing I’ll say is, you know, many people wonder whether artificial intelligence is a gimmick, and the answer is a solid no, meaning it is very very important. I’m really excited to say that we’re utilizing artificial intelligence in each of these phases I spoke about in ascertaining who should have imaging? So drawing patients to imaging, having precision imaging, we utilize artificial intelligence. It helps us understand which diseases are amenable and which patients are candidates for which procedure. And then in the operating room, we utilize artificial intelligence with our robots to make us better. So these algorithms, these artificial intelligence algorithms, they’re all HIPAA compliant, by the way. They’re all they’re all they’re all confidential and protect patient information. But the point is, it allows us as surgeons to see how we can do something faster, more efficient, with smaller incisions for better outcomes, and it’s a really important message that most people don’t know that we’re innovating and utilizing and creating daily. And the final thing is these new procedures are going to be introduced very soon when we’re ready. We will be sharing it with the public. We’ll be sharing it with the referring physicians and cardiologists. But stay tuned. The future of heart surgery is being developed right here in Michigan. There’s no longer a need to travel to anywhere. We have the best of the best right here. So really excited to stay in touch with the audience and and and and serve the community in this important way.

TC: Patrick, how has this experience changed your outlook on your health and the future?

POB: Oh, dramatically! You know something I didn’t mention before, and thank you, Doctor Suri, for mentioning my mom because that’s important that people know, you know, putting off any issues with your heart, no matter how minimal you think they are, don’t do it. Don’t put it off. My my other loss recently, my wife passed away last fall, and she for the couple years I was having symptoms was was constantly asking me to go see somebody and you know I just being a guy you you just kind of ignore stuff that’s kind of old school how I was raised and not a good way to do things she passed away from cancer in the fall. It was very sudden and very fast, and it made me rethink my own health issues. And also, I am very dedicated to doing the things that she would want me to do now that she’s gone. So the number one on that list was to get my heart checked, and as it turns out, it was it was the best thing I could have done because what potentially may have been a slow end to my life, and it certainly was somewhat debilitating over the last couple years, you know the work that I do. I’m an independent contractor in the building industry, and I do a lot of hands-on work. And there was a lot of things I couldn’t do anymore because of my condition. And now I have basically a new lease on life. I mean, my heart potentially will be so much better than it was before. I mean, it is already. My symptoms are gone that I had prior to the surgery, and you know, I feel fantastic. Maybe extended my life by years, maybe decades. There’s no way to tell, but for sure, I’m feeling like I’m feeling like I’m the luckiest guy in the world right now.

TC: Doctor Suri. I want to be respectful of your time and let you get back to what I’m sure is a busy day helping patients, but a couple more questions if you can tell us that I think will be really helpful. And I’ve opened the chat for any media that might want to chat a question to me. One thing that’s come up that I’d like to ask you to talk about is how do you identify a good candidate for this? What you know? What are the benefits to patients for particular kinds of cases, and who might be most eligible for this technique?

RS: Yeah, so it’s a great question and something that people struggle with. So let’s tackle it. So am I a good candidate for robotic mitral valve repair? And the answer is, if you have mitral valve disease, aortic valve disease, coronary artery by coronary artery disease, an atrial septal defect, or a hole in the heart, or certain types of tumors in the heart, you may very well be a candidate for a procedure like this. In order to determine if you are a couple things, just pick up the phone and call us. We’ve made a promise to our patients that we will answer your phone call in 24 hours. So all of those sort of stories, I can’t get to my doctor, I can’t get a response. Those are gone. Call us. We will get back to you in 24 hours workday. And if it’s an emergency, just come into the hospital. We’ll see you the same day. Once we know that you have this problem, we will get you through these advanced diagnostic scanners. You hear about these whole body MRIs and scanners from the lay public. I just want to be really laser focused. This is a scan that was designed by Patrick’s doctor, Dr. Gallagher, and team to be able to determine within minutes whether you are a candidate for a procedure like robotic mitral valve repair or robotic heart surgery. Once we have that information, people in our team and April is on our call right now. She’s our robotics coordinator, very experienced, very sophisticated operating room nurse who launched our robotic program back in 2024 and is now serving our clinic, our patients, and the community. She is there for you to answer your questions, to provide options, and to schedule you in just as soon as possible. And then finally, I would say that following up with us is extremely important. We will continue to follow you at home, just like we called Patrick after he was discharged from hospital, and we’ll see you in the clinic and follow up in the surgery clinic, and then as cardiologist. You know, Patrick touched on something very very important, and that is that once you’re given this awareness, you have a heart murmur or a family member who has had a similar condition like mitral valve disease. People are scared. We’re here to say, don’t be scared. We are here for you. We will take care of you. And the story of Patrick is just so compelling on so many levels, but when he came to us and shared this very heart-touching story of losing his his father to heart disease, his mother to heart disease, his wife to cancer, sadly just recently, and then we were sitting there looking at him in the eyes, along with his two beautiful children. We and the team had this moment of conviction where we knew that we had to save his life and we had to get him back as quickly as possible to his children, his job, serving the community and the life he loves so much. So I really want to just tell patients out there who are worried, concerned, and don’t know where to turn. We’re here for you, and our multidisciplinary team will figure out what you have, design a treatment for you, and ensure that you will live as long as you can with your heart condition fixed.

TC: Thank you so much, Dr. Suri. With that, we’ll bring this to a close, and Doctor, let you get on to your day treating patients. And Patrick, thank you so much for sharing. My heart goes out to you with the hardships you’ve experienced, with the losses in your family, and your you know challenges health wise. But I’m so encouraged and feel it’s very very generous of you to share your experience, and I hope that can help future patients in a similar situation. So thank you for that. You have a big heart, sir, and we really appreciate your time. So thank you both very much for any media on the call. I’ve shared the contact info for the communications people at Corewell Health, who can help you if you have further questions. And we’ll share this recording with the media so that they might hear more about this and be able to tell your story. Thank you both very much, and we’ll say goodbye now. Namaste and good luck.