The first thing you notice about the new tech being employed at Jupiter Medical Center isn’t whirring machinery or glowing screens. It’s the pace. Patients who once braced for a weeklong hospital stay now spend a couple of nights—or a few hours. Operations that once demanded large incisions are tackled through tiny ports. Treatments that used to require multiple surgeries can be done as outpatient procedures.
Across the hospital, surgeons and specialists use next-generation robotic platforms and increasingly capable artificial intelligence (AI) to do two things simultaneously: raise precision and reduce recovery time. Following are four services that are turning that promise into daily work.
Dr. Michael Marsh, a fellowship-trained pulmonologist with Jupiter Medical Center Physician Group, remembers when two of his grandparents were diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. “I remember feeling very powerless as a med student,” he recalls. “Part of me is always chasing that early diagnosis.” Fourteen years into practice, that chase has become his mission.
For decades, lung cancer mortality barely budged. Three major shifts over the past decade have changed that: low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for at-risk patients, safer and more precise ways to biopsy suspicious nodules, and smarter triage to identify which nodules matter. At JMC, Marsh integrates all three.
Artificial intelligence (AI) now reviews imaging reports, scanning for key words such as “lung mass” or “nodule.” The system automatically flags cases to a lung nodule dashboard, including incidental findings from scans ordered for other reasons. “This is really, really important,” Marsh says. “If you have a scan at Jupiter Medical Center, you have AI acting like a guardian angel.”
Since going live in 2024, the program has produced a measurable “stage shift.” Cancers that might have appeared at stage IV are being caught much earlier, when surgery or targeted therapies are most effective and the odds of cure are highest.
For obtaining tissue samples, Marsh favors the Ion robotic bronchoscopy platform, which offers greater precision and safety compared to more traditional biopsy techniques. Cone-beam CT imaging helps guide the robotic arm to reach small, deep lesions. “Now I can acquire more tissue, safely,” he says. That tissue is also used for molecular testing, allowing oncologists to tailor treatments to the genetic makeup of each cancer.
Since expanding the program, the center has nearly tripled its number of robotic bronchoscopies, and most patients go home the same day. JMC is also among a select group offering same-day pulsed-field ablation for eligible nodules. This technology allows physicians to treat a cancerous lesion immediately after confirming the diagnosis, reducing treatment time from days or weeks to minutes.
“It’s still in the early phases, but we’re seeing very promising results,” Marsh says. “The highlight of my career has been catching lung cancer early, when it can truly be cured.”
When cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Vivek Patel started practicing 15 years ago, robotics in cardiac surgery was closer to an idea than a standard. The default was a sternotomy—“cracking the chest open”—and a long recovery. Robotics has revolutionized the treatment of two common problems: coronary blockages and failing mitral valves.
“You’re talking about usually seven days in the hospital and seven months to recover,” Patel says of traditional approaches. “Now you’re looking at three days in the hospital and three weeks to recover.” Smaller incisions mean fewer tubes, earlier mobility, and fewer complications like pneumonia, clots, strokes, and deconditioning. “Not only does this help people spend less time in the hospital," Patel notes, "it reduces a lot of complications.”
AI also is changing diagnosis. JMC recently rolled out Cleerly, which analyzes coronary CT images, quantifies plaque, and stratifies risk beyond a simple stress test. “One of the tools that started creeping into what we do with AI is the prediction of clots or blockages in arteries,” he says. The AI will predict future blockages in patients, meaning doctors can prescribe medication that can prevent issues and use surveillance to make sure the blockages don’t occur.
The frontier Patel is watching is intraoperative prediction, which will use AI to predict in advance complications that may happen during surgery. The question for the future, Patel says is: “When will it be to the point where AI and machine learning really helps us predict in the operating room?”
Robotics took hold early in urology for a reason: tight anatomy, unforgiving nerves, and a small margin for error. Dr. Adam Nolte, a urologist focused on urologic cancers and robotic-assisted surgery for prostate and kidney cancer, trained in Boston and brought his expertise to JMC, where cases range from prostatectomies to partial nephrectomies.
The case for the robot is straightforward: more degrees of freedom than standard laparoscopy, a magnified 3D field, and rock-steady instruments for long cases. For instance, when doctors are removing only a portion of an organ, like a kidney, the robot allows a surgeon to be more precise, sparing more of the organ and surrounding tissue.
“Certainly, the outcomes are much better, and you can point to studies that explain that,” Nolte says. In prostate cancer, the field married minimal incisions with techniques that protect continence and potency. “That’s really where we started to see clear improvements in patient outcomes.”
For patients, smaller incisions often mean less pain and bleeding and a quicker discharge from the hospital. Partial nephrectomies preserve more kidney while clearing the tumor—benefits that compound over time. “In general, people recover better outside the hospital,” Nolte says. “People in the hospital tend to be more confined to their hospital room. People tend to recover faster and return to their daily lives better if they’re at home, once they have met postoperative milestones.”
AI is quickly becoming a tool used in many clinical settings. “It has the potential to make documentation much more efficient, which will enable doctors to spend more time talking to patients,” Nolte says. He expects AI to move toward decision support and procedural guidance over the next 20 years. The robot, he stresses, remains “a set of tools” entirely under the surgeon’s control.
Dr. Michael Worley straddles both worlds: complex open operations when needed and minimally invasive surgery when it serves patients better. Robotic surgery is a new platform for an old goal—less tissue trauma and inflammation. “Patients see that as less pain and soreness after surgery,” says Worley, a women's cancer specialist at The Anderson Family Cancer Institute at JMC.
The upgrade is vision and dexterity. Laparoscopy flattens depth; robotics provides true left- and right-eye views and wristed instruments under magnified sightlines. “If the surgeon can see better, complications can be reduced because of visualizations,” Worley says. Many gynecologic cancer operations that used to require inpatient admission are now outpatient.
Hysterectomies that meant a large, open incision and several days in the hospital can now be same-day discharges without compromising oncologic quality.
Recovery advantages are physiologic, not cosmetic. “There’s no better health-promoting activity you can do than to stay active and moving. Being out of the hospital allows for this to happen more effectively,” Worley says. Every day of immobility costs strength that takes days to reclaim. AI isn’t performing the surgery, but it does offer guidance before and during the procedure and can also help plan the recovery. Over the next five to 10 years, he expects a smaller footprint and more patients recovering at home, and “the importance of that can’t be overstated,” Worley emphasizes.
Dr. Shanel Bhagwandin—medical director of the Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncology Program and program director of the National Pancreas Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence at JMC—was first introduced to cutting-edge robotics during his surgical residency training in 2009. He has since turned that early exposure into a career of advancing minimally invasive approaches for complex cancer surgery.
When he arrived at JMC, the region had no surgical oncology program. Bhagwandin helped build one from the ground up, and it has grown into a high-volume, nationally ranked program for treating complex liver, pancreatic, and esophageal cancer. With a clear vision and financial investment, JMC acquired the state’s first da Vinci 5 robotic surgical platform and assembled a dedicated team to support these demanding surgeries. Today, the service is now among the busiest in the country—compared to top academic centers— with the second-highest overall robotic volume in the U.S. and the highest da Vinci 5 volume for Bhagwandin’s specialty.
Bhagwandin’s highly ranked quality outcomes helped JMC become a da Vinci 5 case-observation site for liver and pancreas surgery—one of only a handful nationwide. With patient consent, visiting surgeons can observe live surgeries or join by “telepresence” to learn the techniques required for these complex operations.
For many high-risk cancer procedures, outcomes increase significantly at high-volume centers with expert surgeons like Bhagwandin. Robotic surgery amplifies this advantage: smaller incisions, less blood loss, lower infection risk, shorter hospital stays, and reduced recovery times. Surgeons also benefit from enhanced visualization and magnification at the robotic console—along with less physical fatigue than standing through four to six-hour operations.
Because only a limited number of patients are candidates for curative surgery, Bhagwandin is also committed to earlier detection. “We can identify risk factors and health outcomes earlier through machine learning, allowing timely intervention and, in some cases, preventing cancers,” he explains. His team is developing AI tools that flag pre-cancerous pancreatic cysts and imaging features linked to early disease development.
Bhagwandin was selected for the prestigious 2025-2026 Knight Foundation Fellowship for Healthcare Technology Innovation, and is channeling that momentum into clinical practice. His team is creating an electronic “medical passport” so structured patient data can travel seamlessly across systems, and they are implementing home-monitoring tools that transmit post-operative vital signs directly to surgeons as patients recover. Wearable AI integration is next as the program continues to mature.
None of the physicians mistake these tools for magic—or for replacements. The robot does not operate by itself, nor will it in the foreseeable future. AI doesn't make decisions. Used correctly, these technologies extend a surgeon’s hands, eyes, and judgment—and help more patients return to their own beds by nightfall, confident they have a surgeon who knows how to embrace innovation for their benefit.