Welcome to canadian surgical technologies and advanced robotics (cstar)

Canadian Surgical Technologies & Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) is a collaborative research and education program of London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), Lawson Health Research Institute (Lawson), The University of Western Ontario (Western) and St. Joseph’s Health Care, London (St. Joseph’s).

CSTAR, a 22,500 square foot facility located in the Legacy Research Pavilion of LHSC, integrates research, development, preclinical and clinical testing, validation, commercialization and clinical implementation of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) technologies and robotics.

CSTAR provides an environment that enables meaningful collaboration of researchers, engineers and surgery clinicians who, together, identify solutions to current and future challenges in surgical care.

To accomplish all of the above-mentioned initiatives, CSTAR is divided into two research groups, medical mechatronics and robotics surgery.

The medical mechatronics division of CSTAR focuses on the development of novel MIS technologies and the procedures with which to use them.

The robotics surgery division of CSTAR focuses on perfecting already existing procedures and the application of MIS technologies developed in the mechatronics division. CSTAR provides world-class acute and chronic laboratory facilities that support preclinical testing and validation of new MIS technologies.

CSTAR interacts with London’s commercialization community to facilitate delivery of MIS technologies to market. Through this integration, CSTAR ‘closes the gap’ between newly developed, effective MIS technologies and their implementation and routine use in clinical care.