Ecosystems and monopolies in digital surgery

Abstract

The ongoing U.S v. Apple lawsuit demonstrates the potential for an ‘ecosystem’ to monopolize hardware, software, and/or services. This raises important issues for the surgical community with the growing adoption of digital surgery solutions, such as surgical robots, that offer industry unprecedented access to, and control over, surgical data. Surgeons must understand the significance of this data and ensure patient benefit is central to the ongoing digital transformation of surgery.