A peek into the surgical robot of the future

Over 18 months, McKinsey Design and Distalmotion came together to develop Dexter, a surgical robot for minimally invasive surgery. After several years of working on the concept for Dexter, Distalmotion reached out to help bring the medical device to life in a way that would optimize the user experience.

“We began by taking a close look at the surgeon’s main interaction point with Dexter: the hand grips,” says Marcus. “We approached the design challenge holistically, aiming to create an interface that caters to control, precision, and comfort.”

To test and understand how Dexter might best support the people who would use it, surgeons and nurses were regularly brought in to inform design decisions. “You really can’t design something without being fully immersed in the users’ reality and experiences,” adds Thomas Nilsson, a McKinsey Design expert partner.

To read the full story, head to the New at McKinsey blog.

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