You don't learn from someone still figuring it out
In June, a man in his fifties in Indonesia received a kidney transplant performed entirely by robotic instruments — the first of its kind in his country — after nearly a year of dialysis had tethered him to machines. The procedure was made possible by a deliberate partnership between Siloam Hospitals and Seoul's Asan Medical Center, where Indonesian surgeons trained for months before returning home to build a program from the ground up. It is a quiet reminder that medical knowledge, when shared with intention across borders, can extend the frontier of what is possible for patients far from where that knowledge was born.
- A 50-year-old man with end-stage renal disease had spent nearly a year on dialysis, his life suspended between machine cycles, before becoming the first patient in Indonesia to receive a robotic kidney transplant.
- The procedure represented not just a surgical first but a test of whether a complex, technology-dependent technique could be faithfully transplanted from one healthcare system to another.
- Six Indonesian urologists traveled to Seoul, spending months under supervision at Asan Medical Center — one of Asia's highest-volume robotic transplant programs — absorbing not just technique but the entire clinical ecosystem surrounding it.
- Back in Indonesia, the team built a comprehensive program before attempting a single surgery, standardizing protocols across every department that would touch a robotic transplant patient.
- The patient was discharged after 13 days and recovered steadily, validating the training, the partnership, and the institutional commitment that made the milestone possible.
- The success now raises a larger question for Southeast Asia: whether other hospitals will follow the same path and whether more patients waiting for transplants will gain access to a procedure that offers faster recovery and better outcomes.
In early June, a man in his fifties left Siloam Hospitals in Indonesia having received a kidney transplant performed entirely by robotic instruments — a procedure his country had never attempted before. Hypertension had destroyed his kidneys, leaving him on dialysis for nearly a year. The donor was an unrelated man in his twenties. Thirteen days after surgery, the patient was discharged and recovering well.
The milestone was years in the making. Siloam Hospitals, Indonesia's largest hospital network, had performed more than 450 conventional kidney transplants, but its surgeons recognized what robotic-assisted surgery could offer that open surgery could not: magnified visualization, articulated precision, and a minimally invasive approach that meant less pain and faster healing. In 2023, the hospital's leadership decided to learn the technique — and to learn it from Asan Medical Center in Seoul, one of Asia's leading transplant programs, which has performed more than 200 robotic kidney transplants since 2020 with a one-year graft survival rate of 98.5 percent.
The partnership was formalized through a memorandum of understanding covering staff exchanges, patient referrals, and technology transfer. In May 2024, six Siloam urologists traveled to Seoul, where they watched, assisted, and gradually led procedures under supervision. They absorbed not just surgical technique but the full clinical ecosystem — nursing protocols, intensive care procedures, infection control, and laparoscopic training.
Returning to Indonesia, the team built a comprehensive program before attempting a single surgery, establishing standardized practices across every department involved in a robotic transplant. When the moment came in June, the patient's recovery validated every hour of preparation. Professor Nur Rasyid, who led the procedure, called it an important milestone. His counterpart at Asan, Professor Shin Sung, described the experience as a reminder that medical knowledge, shared deliberately and systematically, can reshape what is possible in another country's hospitals.
The question now is whether other hospitals across Southeast Asia will follow the same path — and whether patients waiting for kidney transplants in the region will gain access to a procedure that offers them meaningfully better outcomes than the conventional alternative.
In early June, a man in his 50s walked out of Siloam Hospitals in Indonesia having received a kidney transplant performed entirely by robotic surgical instruments—a procedure his country had never attempted before. He had spent nearly a year on dialysis after hypertension destroyed his kidneys, leaving him dependent on machines to filter his blood. The kidney came from an unrelated donor in his 20s. Thirteen days after surgery, he was discharged and recovering steadily. It was a quiet milestone that would have been impossible without a partnership forged three years earlier, thousands of miles away in Seoul.
Siloam Hospitals, Indonesia's largest hospital network, had been performing conventional kidney transplants for years—more than 450 of them. But the surgeons there recognized something in the emerging technology of robotic-assisted transplantation that conventional open surgery could not match: magnified visualization of the surgical field, instruments that moved with articulated precision, and a minimally invasive approach that meant less pain, faster healing, and fewer complications for patients. In 2023, the hospital's leadership made a decision. They would learn this technique, and they would learn it from Asan Medical Center in Seoul, one of Asia's leading transplant programs.
The partnership began formally with a memorandum of understanding that outlined medical staff exchanges, patient referrals, and technology transfer. In May 2024, six urologists from Siloam traveled to Seoul for hands-on training. They watched, assisted, and gradually took the lead in robotic kidney transplants under the supervision of AMC's transplant surgeons. Some stayed longer, making multiple return visits to master every phase of the procedure—from vascular connections to postoperative management. They absorbed not just the surgical technique but the entire ecosystem around it: nursing protocols, intensive care procedures, infection control, laparoscopic training.
When the Siloam team returned to Indonesia, they did not simply attempt one surgery and hope for the best. They built a comprehensive program from the ground up, establishing standardized practices across every department that would touch a robotic transplant patient. The preparation was meticulous. And in June, when they performed the first robotic kidney transplant in Indonesian history, the patient's recovery validated every hour of training and planning.
Professor Nur Rasyid, the urologist who led the procedure, described it as an important milestone in his country's medical advancement. His counterpart at Asan Medical Center, Professor Shin Sung, called the experience unforgettable and rewarding—a reminder that medical knowledge, when shared deliberately and systematically, can reshape what is possible in another country's hospitals. Asan itself has performed more than 200 robotic kidney transplants since introducing the technology in August 2020, the highest volume in Asia. The hospital's one-year graft survival rate stands at 98.5 percent, a measure of how well transplanted kidneys function in their new bodies.
What happened in Indonesia in June was not a one-off achievement. It was proof that advanced surgical technology, paired with rigorous training and institutional commitment, can be transferred across borders and integrated into a new healthcare system. The question now is whether other hospitals in Southeast Asia will follow the same path, and whether patients waiting for kidney transplants in the region will gain access to a procedure that offers them faster recovery and better outcomes than the conventional alternative.
Citas Notables
The successful completion of Indonesia's first robotic kidney transplant marks an important milestone in the country's medical advancement.— Professor Nur Rasyid, urologist at Siloam Hospitals who led the procedure
We will continue sharing Asan Medical Center's medical technologies and clinical systems wherever they are needed.— Professor Shin Sung, Asan Medical Center's Department of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation Surgery
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did Siloam Hospitals choose robotic surgery specifically? They already had a working transplant program.
Because they understood that robotic surgery isn't just a different way to do the same thing—it's fundamentally better for the patient. Less pain, faster healing, fewer complications. Once you see those outcomes, you can't unsee them.
And they picked Asan Medical Center in Seoul as their teacher. Why not somewhere closer, or somewhere else?
Asan had done more robotic kidney transplants than anywhere else in Asia by that point. They had the volume, the experience, the refined protocols. You don't learn from someone who's still figuring it out. You learn from someone who's done it 200 times.
The training took months, and some surgeons went back multiple times. That's a significant investment.
It had to be. You're not just teaching someone to perform a surgery. You're teaching them to build an entire system—how nurses prepare the patient, how the ICU manages them afterward, how you prevent infection, how you monitor the graft. One surgeon making one good cut doesn't mean anything if the rest of the chain fails.
The patient recovered in 13 days. How much of that speed comes from the robotic approach versus just good care?
Both. The robotic approach means smaller incisions, less tissue trauma, less pain. That alone accelerates recovery. But the good care—the protocols, the monitoring, the expertise—that's what keeps complications from derailing the whole process. You need both.
Does this change anything for other countries in the region?
It signals that this is possible. That you don't need to be a wealthy nation with decades of robotic surgery experience to adopt it. You need a hospital willing to invest, surgeons willing to train seriously, and a partner who will teach you properly. That's replicable.