In the words of Australian surgeon Professor Tony Costello, It was truly miraculous.

He’s referring to a video he watched of a doctor performing a coronary artery graft on a still beating heart in four seconds using a robot he had designed himself.

Professor Costello insists robotic surgery, still the subject of heated debate over both its costs and its clinical benefits, will replace laparoscopic and open surgery within just five years.

Honorary professor at the department of surgery at the University of Melbourne, he talks about the learning curve, the loss of haptic cues and the idea of using the technology to operate remotely on a patient in another state.