Burnaby Hospital and Fraser Health say a new robot assisted surgery system is set to be put into action, the first in Western Canada.
The Burnaby Hospital Foundation and the health authority say teams are now training on the Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted, a 2.3 three million dollar addition to the hospital's Jim Pattison Surgery Centre.
The foundation says the robotic arm system will be used in hip and knee replacement procedures.
Foundation board chair Steven McKoen says the system is a game-changer for orthopedic surgeries performed at the facility, a thousand of which are performed at Burnaby Hospital each year.