FORT WAYNE – Lutheran Hospital has invested $825,000 in advanced robotics equipment to perform delicate heart procedures, the first hospital in Indiana to offer the technology.

The equipment, unveiled Thursday, is the Sensei X Robotic Catheter System developed by Hansen Medical. The system’s robotic arm includes millions of fine, intertwined cables that allow the device to maneuver a catheter deep within the heart.

Using the robotic device reduces procedure time and physician fatigue.

The technology allows doctors to treat patients with irregular or rapid heartbeats by burning away small portions of the heart that cause the problem.

Joe Dorko, Lutheran Hospital’s CEO, said it will take a multiyear process to educate the region’s cardiologists, primary care doctors and patients about the technology and the difference it can make in some people’s lives.

“I believe there are hundreds of thousands of people who can benefit,” he said. “This is life-changing.”

Despite the obvious medical benefits, Lutheran Health administrators also considered financial consequences of the purchase.

Dorko said some manufacturers create medical equipment with specialized, disposable pieces that aren’t made by anyone else. That allows the companies to repeatedly increase the price for those unique supplies. Hospitals have to pay inflated rates or let equipment gather dust.

One reason this latest piece of equipment was so appealing was that it uses disposable parts sold by numerous manufacturers, Dorko said. Hospital officials can seek competitive bids on the one-use parts that enter a patient’s heart.

“That’s the most attractive piece to us,” he said.

Lutheran Hospital also is investing an undisclosed amount to replace some of its older catheter labs with updated equipment. The project, which will increase patient capacity, is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

sslater@jg.net