Aug 2011

Hair transplantation is, in a word, tedious. It’s a procedure that takes all day and involves the manual implantation of thousands of hair follicles.

But what if a robot could do it?



Restoration Robotics announced on Wednesday that it raised $41 million in Series C financing for its Artas system, a computer-assisted medical device that uses an image-guided robotic arm to identify and harvest individual follicles.

Clarus Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Alloy Ventures and Interwest Partners were all a part of the round.

The funds will be used to commercialize and market the U.S. launch of the technology, the company says — the logical next step after receiving clearance from the Food & Drug Administration in April.

While the application is cosmetic, the technology has a broader application. Dow Jones’ Scott Austin hinted at the possibilities back in 2007, when the company raised $25 million in Series B funding.

He wrote:

While we’re a long way (thankfully) from having droids, androids, humanoids and other super bots directly operate on us, robotics is increasingly invading the health-care setting. These days (caution, another nerdy Star Wars reference coming) we’re more likely to see something like FX-7, the medical assistant droid in Star Wars that aids doctors in medical procedures.

The idea: bring robots that have surgical precision to serve into an industry that’s already experiencing a shortage of doctors and nurses.

We’re not quite ready for robot-only procedures, of course, but a combination of telemedicine and better technology means doctors can more quickly and accurately serve a patient, optimizing his or her time and the quality of the work they’re doing.

As for hair restoration? It’s a good place to start.

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