Surgical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Interventional Medicine [Scanning the Issue]

Ever since their first introduction in the late 1980s
[1]
,
[2]
, surgical robots have played an increasingly prominent role in medical practice
[3]
,
[4]
. For example, a recent study
[5]
found that over 15% of all general surgery procedures in 2020 were performed robotically, compared to only 1.8% in 2012. The current worldwide robotic surgery market is estimated to be
$\$ $
5.3 billion and is expected to reach
$\$ $
19 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate over 21%
[6]
.