the robotic surgical space is an extremely difficult market to break into. for laparoscopic procedures, intuitive surgical is generations ahead of their nearest

the robotic surgical space is an extremely difficult market to break into. for laparoscopic procedures, intuitive surgical is generations ahead of their nearest competitor. they maintain market leadership by possessing massive amounts of intellectual property and by creating very unique "lock-in" with surgical analytics that are reported to hospital executives. they effectively "score" surgeons with a way to calculate their ROI/profitability to the hospital.