Optometry360 Logo White
  • Conferences
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • About
    • About Us – Mission
    • Content Awards
    • Media Partners
    • Business Team
    • Brand Ambassadors
    • Industry Council
    • Advisory Board

What are you looking for?

  • Anterior Segment
  • Cataract
  • Cornea and External Disease
  • Diabetic Macular Edema
  • Dry Eye
  • Early Onset Cataracts
  • Exclusives
  • General
  • Geographic Atrophy
  • Glaucoma
  • Industry News
  • Inherited Retinal Disease
  • IOLs
  • Neurotrophic Keratitis
  • Ocular Surface Disease
  • Oculoplastics
  • Optometry
  • Pediatrics
  • Practice Management
  • Presbyopia
  • Refractive Surgery/Vision Correction
  • Residents & Young Ophthalmologists
  • Retina
  • Retina Care 360
  • Retinopathy of Prematurity
  • Spotlight Series
  • The Interventional Glaucoma Project
  • The Ophthalmic Project
  • Trending Topics
Spotlight - The Future of Cryopreserved Amniotic Membrane in Oculoplastic Surgery
Optometry360 Logo White
  • Conferences
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • About
    • About Us – Mission
    • Content Awards
    • Media Partners
    • Business Team
    • Brand Ambassadors
    • Industry Council
    • Advisory Board
Home > Cataract > Meet the team behind the world’s first robotic cataract surgery
  • Cataract

Meet the team behind the world’s first robotic cataract surgery

Ophthalmology 360
International Healthcare Media, LLC · The Ophthalmic Project: Horizon Surgical Systems

In the latest episode of The Ophthalmic Project, Mark Dlugoss hosts Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD, CEO of Horizon Surgical Systems, and Uday Devgan, MD, who talk about Horizon Surgical System’s robotic cataract surgery system, Polaris. Dr. Devgan performed the first robotic cataract surgery in October 2025. He and Dr. Hubschman share details about the system, how AI is largely integrated to assist surgeons, and how the system may have applications in other areas of eye care.

Mark Dlugoss:

Ophthalmology got its first look at robotic surgery over 25 years ago. During that time, robotic surgery has seen milestones established in both retina and cornea. In October 2025, a new milestone was achieved when the world’s first robotic cataract surgery was performed.

Hello, this is Mark Dlugoss, Senior Contributing Editor for Ophthalmology 360, and welcome to The Ophthalmic Project, powered by Ophthalmology 360.

In today’s edition of The Ophthalmic Project, we will discuss that first robotic cataract surgery and the company, which made that milestone happen. Joining The Ophthalmic Project to shine light on all of it is Dr. Jean-Pierre Hubschman, CEO of Horizon Surgical Systems, and Dr. Uday Devgan, the surgeon who performed that first robotic cataract surgery. Dr. Hubschman, Dr. Devgan, welcome to The Ophthalmic Project.

Uday Devgan, MD:

Thanks, Mark.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Thanks, Mark, for the invitation. Pleasure to be here.

Mark Dlugoss:

I’m glad you were able to join us. Before we start our questions, I want to say congratulations on the first surgery. That’s quite a milestone in so many ways. I’m looking forward to our discussion today.

Uday Devgan, MD:

It was a fantastic team effort. The amazing part for me was being 1 small member of a very large team of truly amazing people.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

We built the technology and Uday made it happen. It’s a team effort.

Mark Dlugoss:

That’s great.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

A success.

Mark Dlugoss:

Congratulations on that. Let’s begin our discussion. Before we get into Horizon Surgical Systems and actual robotic surgery, let’s start with a discussion of robotic surgery and ophthalmology. I think ophthalmology is sort of late to the ballgame, because, considering the first robotic surgery in medicine was in 1985. Of course, it got into ophthalmology in the late 1990s, early 20s. What’s the little history of robotic surgery and ophthalmology? What did you guys view that, especially from Dr. Devgan, from your perspective as a surgeon, and of course, JP as a manufacturer of equipment?

Uday Devgan, MD:

We’ve used advanced technology in ophthalmology for a very long time. We’ve kept advancing, which is probably one of the great things. Even going back, looking at different surgeries, let’s say cataract. We went from doing manual extracapsular surgery, then we went to phaco, and then we get the incision smaller. Then we break up the cataract inside of the eye. Then maybe we add a femtosecond laser. Then we have fancier lenses. We’ve always done this. We’re on the keratorefractive side, you start with radial keratotomy, then you move over to now XMR laser-based and femtosecond laser-based, and we keep getting better and better. In a sense, all of these things are, to a degree, robotic. But I think what Horizon has done here is revolutionary. This is now truly robotic cataract surgery. The way that you think of it is actually a robot assisting you to do a better job.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

What I would say is regarding robotic itself, when we talk about robotic, I would say that in the 2000s, the initial research project on robotics started in the academic environment, but no real application at that time was translating from the academic. It was mostly research on corneal suture, retina application. But just recently, robotic companies and robotic technology started to address eye surgery. In Europe, you have the Precise company, which started to be commercially available, I would say 5, 6 years ago with retinal application. Some other companies now are starting to develop robotic technology for cataract. But I would say that, as Uday mentioned, true robotic technology is only starting to come available to become available in ophthalmology. We had surgical robotic in other surgical field like laparoscopic surgery, and it changed laparoscopic surgery 20 years ago. We had an ophthalmology device, which looked like robotic system like the femto and other laser-based technology, but the true robotic technology is only coming now.

Mark Dlugoss:

In 2020, Horizon Surgical System was co-founded by you, JP as CEO, and Jacob Rosen, PhD, as a chief technical officer. Of course, Dr. Steven Schwartz, who was at UCLA. Now the company started as a pioneering research effort at UCLA. Can you provide a little history on how Horizon Surgical came about into existence and how it has evolved to this point?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Yeah. I would say that it started around 2008 when an initial group of researchers combining surgeons, bioengineers, and engineers met at CASIT, which is an innovation center at UCLA, and started to work on the diving chip platform, which was available there. We as a group realized that robotic can really bring a lot of to ophthalmology as well in terms of precision, improved workflow, and efficiency and safety. We started to work with the team, incubated 10 years at UCLA, building the first generation of the Polaris platform, which was called the IRIS system at the time. It was initially just a robotic arm. Then over time, we built a platform combining robotic arm, but also visualization and machine learning, which is really bringing the full value of robotic to ophthalmology.

I would say that we incubated, again, a long time at UCLA, built a team across all those different expertise, and spun out the company 4 years ago from UCLA. The company, as you know, is Horizon Surgical System, and we are developing the platform called Polaris.

Mark Dlugoss:

Now Horizon Surgical has a very distinct and innovative mission and vision. Would you outline the company’s mission and vision and how the 2 became sort of a driving force for the company not only and also for robotic surgery in ophthalmology?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

The 2 major unmet needs in ophthalmology and in cataract are the rising demand and the need to address the variability and outcomes. But before I share the mission of Horizon, maybe I’ll share why we started this program 10 years ago. We realized that there’s a high variability in outcomes depending on surgeon’s skills and expertise, and that surgery is based on vision, decision, and manipulation. At UCLA, we worked for quite some time on building a platform, combining technology, assisting surgeons on those 3 pillars of surgery. By combining advanced visualization technology, by providing decision support to surgeon, to AI, and also by developing the robotic arm, which will provide better procedure, by combining those 3 things, we can really help surgeons achieve much better outcomes and address this rising demand.

The mission at Horizon is really to redefine eye surgery by providing better outcomes to our patients, allowing to improve the surgical workflow, allowing [the] surgeon and surgery center to address this rising demand. This is the mission. We think that we can transform the eye care. The eye surgery with this technology and help surgeon and surgery center provide the consistent super outcome to every single patient.

Mark Dlugoss:

Before we get into details of Polaris, let’s explore the early research history leading up to Polaris. I guess at the time at UCLA, you and fellow researchers were working on what I’ve learned to be what the thing the project was called interocular robotic interventional surgical system. I assume that was the prototype for Polaris. Can you outline for the listeners what you were looking to accomplish with this version of the platform?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Yeah. Again, when we started in 2008, it was mostly about a robotic arm. We realized very soon that, as I mentioned before, surgeries about not just precision, but also visualization and decision. We built 2 generations of the IRIS platform at UCLA combining robotic arm, visualization capability. What was the beginning of AI at the time, like 10 years ago, AI was not as famous and trendy as today, and the capability at the time was not the same, but we started making or building this platform and demonstrating that it’s feasible, that such a platform can perform my surgery with better safety. When the platform and the technology was mature enough and we realized actually that this technology can transform my surgery, we decided to spin off the technology from UCLA.

Mark Dlugoss:

What did Horizon Surgical researchers learn from those early prototypes of robotic surgical devices, and how did the company address the setbacks, if there were any, in their development, and to move toward the creation of the Polaris?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

What we discovered at UCLA during this preliminary research is, number 1, eye surgery is very specific. It’s a very tiny organ with a need for high precision. It’s very different from the needs you have in laparoscopic surgery and other surgeries. The unmet need, but also the specificity of eye surgery, are extremely different. We learned as well, as I mentioned before, that robotic and precision itself is not enough. We need to improve the surgical workflow, the usability. We cannot just bring a technology which will help for the procedure. It needs to integrate really well into the workflow. It needs to help surgery centers and surgeons provide the best care for every single patient. We discovered in all those things over time and realized what technology could help to address those unmet need and what technology can be used to address the specificity of eye surgery.

It’s not like robotic system you can apply for eye surgery. You need to build a purpose, built dedicated for eye surgery system, to make it work.

Mark Dlugoss:

Let’s move our discussion to the Polaris. Please outline for us what the Polaris is, what it’s made of, what is, and can you describe the technology behind Polaris? What are some of the key features and capabilities that the Polaris provides a surgeon?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Yeah. Very high level, the Polaris system is a combination of a multimodal imaging capability or device, combining digital microscope, OCT and other image modalities, allowing the surgeon to visualize everything inside the eye, visualize things you could not see normally through a normal surgical or digital microscope. That’s number 1. Number 2 is building machine learning and decision support, allowing surgeon to make the right decision, the best decision to perform the surgery as they would be helped by the hundred best surgeon for every single surgery, and then building a robotic arm which can bring this procedure. There are 2 main devices, what we call the cockpit, where the surgeon is controlling the system with the input device, with 3D screen and so on, and the patient part, which is actually the robotic piece interacting with the patient. You have those 2 main parts of the Polaris system, combining, again, visualization, enhanced visualization, improve precision through the robotic arm, and assisted decision support.

Mark Dlugoss:

What sets the Polaris apart from other robotic surgical platforms? I don’t know if you remember the Da Vinci was out there in the early versions. How does this set itself apart from what’s been in the past, what’s out there now, and what may be in the development stages?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Yeah. Again, eye surgery is very specific and you cannot use a platform, robotic platform dedicated or used in other surgical field for eye surgery. You need to design a purpose-built eye surgical robotic platform. This is what we’ve done, 10 years ago while at UCLA, with the team, we really looked at the unmet need, looked at the specificity of surgery, eye surgery, and designed a platform specifically for eye surgery. With Polaris, we’ll be able to perform any type of eye surgery. We decided to start with cataract as its first application, but we’ll be very soon able to perform glaucoma surgery and retinal surgery. But what differentiates Polaris from other robotic platform outside of ophthalmology is really designed specifically for eye surgery. We designed all parts of them in-house, meaning the visualization, the robotic arm, all the machine learning, everything has been designed and built in-house and addresses specifically the unmet need of eye surgery, which are, as we discussed before, efficiency, safety, better outcomes, all of those things.

We’ve developed as well Polaris hand in hand with surgeons. It’s not like just a technology. We have done with other surgeons, Uday is coming very often to the lab to make sure that what we design is helping surgeon doing a better job. It’s really along the development of along the years, we’ve been working with surgeons, making sure that it’s clinically relevant and technology driven.

Mark Dlugoss:

Did you find any challenges as a team in developing Polaris? If there were, what were those challenges and how did your surgeons and engineers address them?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

We started Horizon 4 years ago. It’s been an enormous challenge. Yes, it’s developing this type of technologies, extremely challenging. I was not trained for this. I’m a retinal surgeon, and I was a faculty at UCLA, a really interesting job, but very different. We started this company 4 years ago. The challenge I’ve seen is first building the right team. Uday discussed it earlier, everything’s about the team. We need a team with cross-functional, team with expertise in different fields in engineering, optics, AI, software, robotic. Then beyond engineering, we need to collaborate with a surgeon. Building a team where everyone is dedicated, can communicate and collaborate properly cross-functionally is critical. We face challenges. I mean, yes, but as soon as you have the right people and you can discuss openly and make the right decision and work together, we can address those challenges.

Again, I think that everything is about the team. I’m glad at Horizon, we’ve been able to build an amazing team and we’ve been pretty successful so far. You mentioned the first human Uday Devgan completed successfully 3 months ago and it’s really, again, everything’s about the team.

Mark Dlugoss:

Dr. Devgan, I’m going to start talking to you about some things from the surgeon’s perspective. You performed that first robotic cataract surgery in October. How many cataract surgeries have you performed using the Polaris to this point? How many in general from other doctors did you know that participated in?

Uday Devgan, MD:

Yeah, we did practice runs in the lab. I did many model eyes, pig eyes, even cadaver eyes. Did countless of those. But in the human trial, we did 10 patients, each had 1 eye done. Our team, we did a total of 10 eyes having robotic cataract surgery in El Salvador, part of Horizon Surgical’s trial, and that was again October. It was amazing. I mean, 10 out of 10 went beautifully. There were zero adverse events, and I think now it’s time to do probably more trials in the near future.

Mark Dlugoss:

Can you outline your surgical and clinical experiences using the Polaris? Basically what I’m asking is, what stands out to you about the Polaris?

Uday Devgan, MD:

What stands out is, think about this, we operate in a very tiny space. You get the palm of your hand, you put in 8 or 10 drops of water. I’m operating inside that water. This is part of the reason why you can’t use these existing robots that have been used for abdominal surgery or urologic surgery, and you can’t apply those to what we’re doing. We’re at a whole different scale, which is a really microscopic, a nanoscale, if you will. What I enjoyed with the robot was I felt it made me a better surgeon in certain ways. One of those was the imaging modality that I’ve never had before in my life. Not only was the 4K 3D camera amazing and gave a true incredible view, but just having the real-time integrated OCT, I got spoiled. I did cases there and I asked the technician, “Look at on the OCT. Is that lens in the back?” “Yes, completely done.” “Is there any cortex left in the back?” “No.”

I don’t have the benefit of that in my operating room now in Beverly Hills. The addition of that technology alone was better. Now when you take into into account the actual driving of the robot, which was very natural, it’s the same hand position, the same instruments, the same foot pedals that I use in my surgery, but with added benefits. As JP alluded to earlier, can we make every surgeon on the bell curve, even the surgeons who struggle on the bottom half of the bell curve, like the beginning surgeons, can we give them the ability to operate like a truly world-class surgeon? Can we decrease complications? Can we increase precision? All of these things are coming.

Mark Dlugoss:

How does robotic surgery and specifically with the Polaris increase your confidence as a surgeon in performing cataract surgery?

Uday Devgan, MD:

I think the robot has the ability to do things that I can’t do as a human, such as let’s say precision. What’s the best precision a human can achieve under a microscope? Maybe 40 microns. The robot can do 10 times better. How about reaction time? If I’m really good, maybe I have a 200-ms reaction time. Well, maybe an F1 race car driver has 150 ms. Well, the robot can have 10 times better than that, 20 times better than that. It’s unbelievable. It’s things that are superhuman. I can be an incredible human surgeon, top of the bell curve if I think, but I can’t be better than what this level the robot’s going to offer us.

Mark Dlugoss:

How does Polaris work when you run into a situation, say like the lens falls through or something falls back into the retina? How does that help? Does it help you better to see things to retrieve or solve the problem?

Uday Devgan, MD:

Keep in mind, at all times, you’ve got the human there, the surgeon who’s in control. I can choose my level of assistance from the robot, whatever degree I wish. But I can also say, should I decide to, move the robot. I’m just going to come next to the patient, take over, do the whole surgery. I can do whatever I want. It doesn’t take anything away from me. I think in this situation, there are challenges we had in the trial. I was able to fix issues of iris prolapse or a mispositioned lens, IOL. I could fix it with the robot without getting up from the surgical cockpit. We had a very successful outcome there. Again, these things can be handled even now, and obviously in the future it’ll get just better and better.

Mark Dlugoss:

Let’s talk about outcomes and complication rates. What kind of outcomes are you seeing with the Polaris? Have there been any complication rates that you can discuss? How does that compare to outcomes and complication rates that you see in standard cataract surgery?

Uday Devgan, MD:

Great question. Very important to be able to compare the robot to what we have now, because our goal ultimately is to have the robot much better than us. Today, I’m happy to report to you, of the 10 cases, 10 out of 10 went beautifully; 10 out of 10 had a fantastic visual recovery. I’m sure JP and the team can give you the actual data if you need. There were no adverse events at all. But, of course, the end, the number of cases we did was 10. Now, soon we’ll do more trial numbers then there will be 100 patients. Then at some point there will be 1,000 patients and we’ll in seed with time. Now, as a surgeon myself, I’ve done tens of thousands of cases. Obviously, I have a very, very low complication rate.

Well, as we rack up more and more numbers with the robot and with other surgeons, while I’d love to be the only surgeon, the beauty of the robot is, it doesn’t matter which surgeon is driving it as much as you may think. The robot is able to assist equally. I think today the complication rates so far is zero. But, of course, the caveat there is it’s a low number of actual in humans that we’ve done, which is 10 eyes.

Mark Dlugoss:

Yeah. How much of a learning curve is involved to incorporate the Polaris for both the surgeon and the staff?

Uday Devgan, MD:

There’s a little bit of learning curve, but actually not much, because we’re using the same instruments and the same kind of technique. Today, when I drive the robot, it feels very natural to me. Keep in mind, ophthalmology surgery is not very tactile. It’s not like I’m doing orthopedics here. When I make an incision in my Beverly Hills Surgery Center with a diamond keratome, there’s no feedback. There’s no tactile feedback. It’s visual. This feels the same way. The instruments that are designed and the engineers are brilliant, are designed to feel naturally, just like my own operating room with the hand position and the way I use the instruments. The foot pedals are basically identical, the same foot pedals I use now. The transition in that sense was very easy.

Mark Dlugoss:

What would you say to surgeons whom may be on the fence about possibly incorporating Polaris or robotic surgery in general into their ORs?

Uday Devgan, MD:

I think you’ve got to embrace this with open arms. The reason is, look back in ophthalmology. Everything is advanced and always there’s a little bit of healthy hesitation at the beginning, a little bit of doubt. But then when you keep an open mind, you start to see, “Wow, it’s much better.” We had the same issue when we moved from extracapsular surgery to phaco. Then even phaco, when they went to smaller incisions and then foldable lenses, and then topical anesthesia, and then now presbyopic lens, and now femtosecond laser. It keeps advancing, and clearly there are benefits. If you look at something as simple as corneal refractive surgery, yes, decades ago we did radial keratotomy. When the first very expensive excimer lasers came out, there were people who said, “No, I’d just rather do radial keratotomy.” But now look, let’s be honest here, you can’t deliver that level of precision by your hands.

With an excimer laser, you can treat down to the almost micron level. This robot is going to do the same thing here in this part of ophthalmology, which is intraocular surgery and then starting with cataract surgery. It’s going to make it a much better procedure. There’s no question about it. I have a bias. JP and I are actually personally invested in Horizon Surgical. I’m a consultant with a company. I put my own money into it. Believe me, there’s a bias. I want to be very upfront. But the reason is, I encourage you to do the same thing. You should invest in it too. I promise, in my eyes, this has taken over.

Mark Dlugoss:

Yeah. It’s good to hear. Now, this is a question that’s probably for both of you. Dr. Devgan, you could probably present it from the point of the surgeon. Of course, Dr. JP, you could talk about it from the perspective of the company. What barriers still need to be overcome before robotic surgery reaches its full potential in the United States?

Uday Devgan, MD:

It’s going to take time. Things evolve. When I sit here with my phone, I had the original iPhone like 10, 15 years ago. That was terrible compared to today’s iPhone, but it was the first step. You’re going to keep seeing further iterations of the robot get better and better and better. I think that’s 1 hurdle. You have to be patient and let the technology evolve. The other obviously is we’ve got to change the way we look at the surgery. In fact, the good thing is I think we’ll be able to deliver higher volume of surgery with a higher precision and higher safety. That’s the ultimate goal because we’re going to have a cataract backlog. We already do, and we’re going to have a shortage of surgeons and everyone who lives long enough, you and me included, are going to need cataract surgery.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

I think that we need to make sure that this technology address the surgical workflow problem and the safety and bring value to surgeon and surgery centers and obviously to the patient. But I’m very confident that this technology will address all those needs and will change how surgery is performed in the future.

Uday Devgan, MD:

Right. Statistically, the 3 of us, 3 men talking now, statistically, 1 of us is going to have a prostate problem. Do I want my surgeon, if I’m the unlucky one who needs a prostatectomy, do I want the surgeon to use this newest robot or say, “No, I don’t really trust the robot. Can you go back to just slice me wide open?” No, of course not. It’s the same concept here. It’s the same concept. I just flew back from lecturing in South Africa. I flew back yesterday. I’m super happy on that long 16-hour flight that my pilot had autopilot, GPS navigation, all the computer assistance that he needed. But I’m also happy that that pilot, who I met in person, I said thank you to him at the end of the flight, I’m happy that he was there to supervise the whole thing, and that’s what we’re going to need for cataract surgery. I still need the surgeon. The surgeon is still the leader of the ship.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Yes, I mean, I’m completely aligned with Uday. In many other fields, aviation, manufacturing, the technology allowing better precision improved by data and technology really helped in terms of safety, in terms of outcomes, in terms of efficiency, and that will most likely be the same in medicine. Now, yes, we need a surgeon. It’s not replacing the surgeon. It will help the surgeon become a better version of themself and provide a better, better outcome to that patient.

Mark Dlugoss:

One of the questions I was going to ask about the Polaris is technical maintenance. What kind of technical maintenance is involved with the unit? Is it difficult, easy? Basically, how you go about doing technical maintenance?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

It will be pretty much the same you have for femto, phaco, surgical microscope. I mean, it’s very similar to existing device surgeon have already in their OR. It will actually simplify, not the workflow, but consolidate the divide they have in the OR because the surgical robotic platform will combine all those things. It will simplify, most likely, the service and all those things related to it.

Mark Dlugoss:

As Horizon Surgical moves toward securing FDA approval and commercialization, where does the company currently stand in relation to Polaris in the clinical trial process to attain that FDA approval?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

I cannot share too much. But what I can share is we entered the clinical phase a few months ago. We will have ongoing studies outside of the US and in the US. We are obviously aiming for FDA approval at some point and launch this technology in the US as soon as possible, but I cannot share too much details on the timeline. I’m sorry.

Mark Dlugoss:

That’s okay. Hopefully as you move down the process, we’ll rejoin up and just have it discuss some more.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Sure.

Mark Dlugoss:

You mentioned that you’re on the verge of developing something for the glaucoma surgery and for retina. Can you talk about some of the future applications?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Sure. Polaris is a platform. It has been designed for all type of eye surgery. We decided to focus initially on cataract because it’s high-volume, highly repetitive, and so it was perfect for robotic and AI. However, we have already demonstrated feasibility in glaucoma surgery and retinal surgery. Glaucoma for MIGS application, it’s actually a no-brainer because you won’t have to move the head of the patient with all visualization system. You can see the angle directly with the Polaris system, and you can with the robotic arm in just a few seconds place with high precision, the MIGS into the angle. Glaucoma will be the next obvious application for Polaris with huge value for surgeon for patient. Same thing for retina.

As you know, reaching some level of precision needed for retina manipulation is pretty tricky for a human surgeon. This robotic platform will achieve, as Uday mentioned before, micron precision, allowing to actually perform surgery with more safety but also potentially open the door for new surgical techniques, new applications such as vein cannulation, better subretinal injection. I’m not advocating for vein cannulation. We don’t know yet if it’s really valuable for the patient, but those things will be easy to achieve or perform with the robotic platform.

Mark Dlugoss:

How far away are you from coming to trials with both those applications?

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Very soon. Again, we are focusing on cataract, but the other applications are in the pipeline. We demonstrated already the feasibility that can be launched very quickly after cataract.

Mark Dlugoss:

Okay. Well, our discussion, gentlemen, has outlined a lot of information on Horizon Surgical Systems and Polaris. Are there any points of discussion we may have overlooked in our conversation or is there anything you would like to add about Horizon Surgical Systems and Polaris before we close?

Uday Devgan, MD:

Sometimes you don’t realize how things are all going to come together. If you asked me 20 years ago, I had a flip phone to talk on. I had a pager to get messages. I had an iPod to listen to music to. I had a video camera to shoot video. I had a still camera too. When my kids were little, took all these things with me every time. It’s all in here now. It’s in my phone now. The phone does everything. The still pictures, the video, the iPod player. I don’t need a laptop anymore. I can do everything from my phone. I can do my email here, my text message. Everything’s consolidated into one device now. In the operating room, do I need now to have a separate laser for this? I need to have this. Do I have a separate microscope or separate phaco machines? No, it’s all goes together. It’s all in the Polaris robot. Everything consolidated at once.

Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD:

Yeah. I think that combination of robotic and AI is inevitable. We saw over the last few years, the power of AI, how this technology can learn from unlimited amount of data and will help surgeons for, again, decision process and other things. I’m convinced that this technology will really not replace surgeons, but help surgeons and surgery centers address the rising demand and provide better outcomes to their patients. I’m super confident about the technology and the value it will bring to everyone.

Mark Dlugoss:

Well, I want to thank you again, gentlemen, for participating in The Ophthalmic Project. Again, congratulations on the first robotic cataract surgery. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what more Horizon has to do down the line. That concludes today’s edition of The Ophthalmic Project. I want to thank Dr. Hubschman and Dr. Devgan for sharing their experiences with robotic cataract surgery, and, of course, to learn more about the Horizon Medical Systems and its Polaris platform. Finally, I want to thank you, the listeners, for tuning in. I hope you will join us for the next edition of The Ophthalmic Project, powered by Ophthalmology 360. Until next time, have a great day.

Share

Related Content

  • Practice Management

ZEISS turns 100: the evolution of vision care, ophthalmology, and optical innovation

  • Retina

Nanoscope Therapeutics is working on the potential first-ever optogenetic therapy for retinal diseases

  • Retina

How Re-Vana is shaping the future of biodegradable drug delivery in retina care

  • Neurotrophic Keratitis

Early detection and targeted treatment strategies are critical for optimal outcomes in neurotrophic keratitis

  • Glaucoma

Interventional glaucoma in 2026: patient selection, technique, and the expanding toolkit

  • Glaucoma

Managing glaucoma in highly myopic eyes

Share

Editor's Picks

  • Neurotrophic Keratitis

Topical insulin shows real-world benefit in neurotrophic keratopathy

  • Retina

GLP-1 RAs have protective effects against AMD

  • Retina

Four-month injection intervals appear safe for long-term stable nAMD

Advisory Board

Saad Ahmad, MD

Ahmad A. Aref, MD, MBA

Roomasa Channa, MD

David Chow, MD, FRCS(C)

Sally L. Baxter, MD, MSc

Neel R. Desai, MD

Nadia Haqqie, MD

Simon Fung, MD, FRCOphth

Sumit Garg, MD

Ross Lakhanpal, MD, FACS

Sanjai Jalaj, MD

Anton Kolomeyer, MD, PhD

Shan Lin, MD

Steven R. Sarkisian, Jr., MD

See All
Optometry360 Logo

Ophthalmology 360® is a dynamic digital platform dedicated to advancing the field of eye care.

Get to Know Us

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Media Partners
  • Advertising Policy
  • Our Advisory Board

Sign up for our Newsletter

Sign up for our Newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

  • Privacy Policy
  • Advertising Policy
  • Medical Disclaimer
IHM Logo

2026 Ophthalmology 360 is a trademark of International Healthcare Media, LLC. All rights reserved

  • MedJournal360 Icon
  • RareDisease360 Icon
  • MyHero360 Icon
  • Optometry360 Icon
  • Ophtalmology360 Icon