Mr Png Zhijie (white top) with his family tossing yusheng during a reunion dinner on Jan 30, 2022. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
SingValue
People undergoing minimally invasive heart surgery can look forward to having one fewer incision through their chest wall - reducing trauma for them.An innovation - a flexible, miniature video camera - that passes through the shaft of an existing surgical instrument will replace an existing bulky camera system.Invented by surgeons at National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS), this new equipment improves Singapore's state of the art healthcare scene.Currently, minimally invasive heart surgery requires the use of endoscopic camera systems that are large and bulky.This new system is much smaller and the camera and its cable are flexible, Associate Professor Theodoros Kofidis, head and senior consultant at the department of cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery in NUHCS, said.Named the Endopsis system, this National University of Singapore-made system is undergoing clinical trials. Since July 2021, it has been used on six patients.