Dr. Jeff McCracken ’93 used to wear a hockey helmet while performing surgeries—out of necessity. In the early days of using robotics in the operating room, the arms were so uncoordinated they would invariably hit him in the head.
“The thing would turn around suddenly and just clock you right in the face!” McCracken said, reflecting on surgeries he performed nearly 20 years ago in Seattle. “So much of what we had to learn when we started [back then] was how to position the arms so they weren’t hitting each other, or you, in the middle of surgery.”
McCracken, now chief urologist for Island Health, is helping spearhead a major fundraising campaign to bring the most advanced—and much more coordinated—surgical robots to Vancouver Island operating rooms for the first time.
“This is transformational for Island Health,” he said. “Getting this technology is going to be awesome, but I’m quite confident that we're going to prove to be ahead of the curve in elevating the standard of care for patients.”
Surgical Innovation
Surgery, as McCracked explained, is first and foremost about getting it done properly. Second to that is getting it done in the most minimally invasive way possible.
The benefit of robotic surgery is that it can prioritize both. That leads to less complications and surgical side effects, shorter hospital stays and quicker recovery times.
“It's been pretty apparent, going back to the dawn of laparoscopic [minimally invasive] surgery, that it's good, but it's just not quite enough. I think that's what drew me to robotic surgery,” he said. “I love surgery. I love technique. I love learning new things, and trying to do things better.”
After graduating from SMUS, McCracken earned a degree in biochemistry from the University of Victoria, and headed to med school at the University of British Columbia, followed by urology residency.
In 2007, McCracken worked in Seattle for a year, drawn by the prospect of working alongside one of the world’s best robotic surgeons.
“Everybody always asks, ‘What’s next? How can we take [surgery] further?’ I always thought the answer was finding solutions to the limitations of laparoscopic surgery. Because of that, I knew the robot would be the future.”
A Passion Project
Gone are the days of a hockey helmet and risking a concussion while performing surgery. Today’s surgical robots are nimble, more user-friendly, and incredibly smart—integrating artificial intelligence into their functions.
McCracken said he’s excited that surgeries with state-of-the-art robots will begin next year in Victoria.
“We are one of the smaller centres in the world to gain access to this technology,” he said. “We want to integrate every service onto the robot so that we'll have a fully functional robotic surgery group: general surgery, ENT, thoracic surgery, gynecology. That would make us one of the only centres in Canada to integrate the technology like that.”
McCracken said his family, including his two children—SMUS students Angus and Edith, have been his biggest supporters as he’s worked tirelessly to bring this technology to patients and surgeons here.
“This is proof that perseverance pays off. I spent 17 years working at this, and I kept trying and trying to get to this point,” he said. “This is my community. I was born and raised here and I'm fortunate to be part of the medical system here. It's a joy to be here and it's an even bigger joy to bring this sort of technology to this community so everyone benefits.”
Learn more about Victoria Hospitals Foundation’s It’s Time fundraising campaign at https://www.victoriahf.ca/itstime/.
