Boca Raton Regional Hospital recently announced that it has expanded its robotic surgery program, adding a second Intuitive da Vinci Si Surgical System. The hospital acquired its first da Vinci robot in March 2011. Since that time, the hospital’s robotic surgery program has become the busiest in Palm Beach County, according to a BRRH press release.

For surgeons, da Vinci robotic technology offers better visualization, enhanced dexterity and greater precision compared to traditional approaches in minimally invasive surgery. Another advantage: Some conditions that could not be addressed with traditional minimally invasive techniques can be performed using the robotic system.

The addition of the robotic platform has transformed the practice of gynecology and gynecologic oncology, says Dr. Fernando Recio, medical director BRRH’s robotic surgery program.

“We can now perform the majority of gynecologic surgical case load employing robotic surgical techniques,” according to Recio.

Philanthropists and Boca Raton residents Barbara and Irving Gutin donated the money needed to buy both robotic systems.

In other news

• Local optometrist Marc Gannon has been named the South Florida low-vision specialist for an FDA-approved ophthalmic telescope implant, which improves vision in patients with end-stage, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Gannon is founder of The Low Vision Institute, a practice based in Fort Lauderdale but with offices around Florida (including at 16950 Jog Road, Suite 107, Delray Beach). The implant makers, VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies, made the announcement.

“We’ve been helping restore vision for thousands of AMD patients with the use of custom telescopes set in a pair of glasses, without surgery,” Gannon noted in a press released. “A viable surgical implant of telescopes is exciting. It has the potential to change the lives of many people.”

Gannon’s role is to evaluate interested patients and determine if they are candidates for the procedure with VisionCare’s CentraSight. For more about Gannon’s practice, go to http://lowvisioninstitute.com.

• There’s still time to get in on a good deal at the Peter Blum Family YMCA of Boca Raton. The YMCA (6631 Palmetto Circle S.) is offering a reduced “joiner fee,” according to the day in January 2013 that you join. So, if you join the Boca Y on Jan. 20, you pay $20 to join. If you join Jan. 21, the fee is $21, etc. And the promotion runs through January, only. Monthly fees still apply. For single memberships, for example, you’d save on the $100 joiner fee, depending on when in the month you joined, but you’d still pay the $52 monthly fee.

For more information visit ymcaspbc.org/paytheday.aspx or call 800/798.4531.