‘Dr. Robot’ coming to Sask.

SASKATOON — A cuttingedge neurosurgeon nicknamed “Dr. Robot” for his technological inventions is coming to Saskatchewan.

Dr. Ivar Mendez, who spent the past dozen years as a neurosurgeon and researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax, will be the new unified head of surgery at the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatoon Health Region.

“This is a unique position in the country that would allow the co-ordination and the strategy of how surgical services are provided to the province,” Mendez said from his Halifax office Thursday. He starts in Saskatoon on June 1.

Media outlets in Nova Scotia were lamenting Mendez’s loss Thursday. With expertise in brain repair and working with stem cells, Mendez is best-known for his projects using technology to bring advanced health care to people living in far-flung places.

He was part of a team that introduced Rosie the robot to a remote community in Labrador. Instead of patients travelling for hours to consult a specialist, doctors in Halifax could “see” patients and even roam the halls of the health centre.

Mendez is now also testing a hand-held device called an Infrascanner, which can detect a possible blood clot in a patient’s brain in as little as 10 seconds. Rather than a trip to the hospital and a wait for a CT scanner, Mendez sees a future where paramedics, and even hockey and football teams, could use the wand-like device to determine right away whether a concussion has resulted in brain bleeding.

Mendez has also been a pioneer in the realm of remote surgical procedures, where a doctor “operates” on a faraway patient robotically, with the help of local healthcare workers.

Technology is a key to improving access to specialized medical care, he says.