- A Chinese medical technology company has obtained EU approval for its remote surgical robot
- Medbot’s Toumai system can now be moved and marketed freely in the EU
- The approval comes after Toumai was used for the UK’s first long-haul operation
A Chinese medical technology company has gained EU approval for its remote surgical robot after it was used by a London surgeon to operate on a patient 1,500 miles away in Gibraltar.
Shanghai Microport MedBots Toumai is a three-part remote surgery system that enables doctors and surgeons to perform operations on the abdomen and pelvis.
The system is composed of a surgeon’s console, a patient cart and a vision cart with robotic “limbs” that allow operators to perform operations. The system uses 5G connectivity to connect the surgeon console to the vision cart over long distances.
The approval follows Toumai’s successful use of a London surgeon to perform the UK’s first remote surgery, a full prostate removal on a man with prostate cancer in Gibraltar.
Dr. Proskar Dasgupta performed the operation using the teleoperated system on 62-year-old Paul Buxton in March 2026. Speaking to the BBC, Buxton said it was a “no-brainer” to take part in the experimental procedure and become “part of medical history”.
The robot will see you now
Gibraltar, a small British territory just south of Spain, has a single hospital within its borders, meaning residents may have to travel 1,500 miles north to Britain for more complex procedures.
However, Toumai and remote surgery systems like it allow patients to be treated by experts without traveling to see them. Dr. Dasgupta told the BBC that he felt “almost like I was there” while performing Mr. Buxton’s procedure.
On June 22nd, Shanghai Microport MedBot announced that the Toumai robotic surgery system had received the CE mark – an EU approval stamp required to sell products in its common market
As the South China Morning Post reports, this allows the system to be “moved and marketed” freely within the EU, meaning the company is free to offer Toumai to healthcare providers in any of the EU’s 27 member states.
This will be welcome news for MedBot, which got 73 percent of its revenue from overseas sales in 2025, up from 20 percent in 2023.
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