Narrative Nonfiction
The Surgeon'sMachine
How a Pentagon prototype, a Silicon Valley startup, and a Detroit underdog reinvented surgery.
Available August 2026 · Paperback & eBook
How a Pentagon prototype, a Silicon Valley startup, and a Detroit underdog reinvented surgery.
Surgery has always been a craft of individual hands. This is the story of the machine built to change that, and the people who proved it could.
For centuries, the quality of an operation depended on the particular surgeon holding the knife. The promise of robotic surgery was to change that equation: to capture skill in a machine and make it reproducible, so the distance between the best surgeon and the average one would narrow.
The Surgeon's Machine traces how that promise was built and contested, from Cold War panic and a classified Pentagon prototype, through a Silicon Valley patent war, to a Detroit operating room where an immigrant urologist found the first real use for the machine and saved the company that made it.
It is also a business story. The robot works because the business model funds the technology, and the technology works because it changes what surgeons can do. That feedback loop carried robotic surgery across six continents and to more than twenty million patients, and built one of the most valuable companies in the history of medicine.
Where it goes next is the part still being written, as the machine begins not just to assist, but to learn.
How the machine changes what an operation can be, from the first robotic prostatectomy to the training that turned a generation of surgeons into robotic operators, and where the technology heads next.
The business behind the breakthrough: the recurring-revenue engine, the competitive moat, and the strategic question of whether the advantage is hardware or software.
The engineering behind the machine: the Cold War telepresence prototype, the invention of the wristed instrument, the hardware generations that followed, and the surgical AI and autonomy now redefining what it can do.
A narrative history of how a transformative technology was invented and then diffused, traced from Cold War origins through the scaffolding that carried it across six continents.
Robotic surgery as a question of policy: industrial strategy, procurement and reimbursement, antitrust, and whether a technology that democratizes skill will also democratize access.
The five-century quest to industrialize the craft of surgery, from Leonardo's knight to the assembly line.
How Cold War anxiety and Pentagon research produced the first telesurgery prototype.
The rivalry, lawsuits, and merger that gave one company control of the field.
Mani Menon's audacious journey from India to leadership in American urology.
How the Henry Ford team developed the first robotic procedure, giving the machine its purpose.
The early go-to-market strategy that turned a device into a standard of care.
How the market leader weathered crisis and fueled its own reinvention.
How robotic surgery spread across Europe and Asia, and why scaffolding decided its fate.
The pricing, training, and institutional playbook that built a market from nothing.
The challengers, platform wars, and new technologies contesting the lead.
Surgical AI, autonomy, and the questions the field has never had to answer.
Siddharth Siva worked at Henry Ford Health System, supporting clinical research on robotic prostatectomy and witnessing robotic surgery’s evolution from early laboratory studies to applications across multiple continents. His career in strategic finance at Fortune 10 healthcare and technology companies, including Amazon, Meta, and McKesson, lets him tell the medical, technology, and business sides of this story.
Siddharth Siva worked at the Henry Ford Health System from 2007 to 2009, supporting clinical research on robotic prostatectomy and witnessing the evolution of robotic kidney surgery from early laboratory studies to successful human applications across multiple continents.
His subsequent career in strategic finance at Fortune 10 healthcare and technology companies, including Amazon, Meta, and McKesson, enables him to tell the medical, technology, and business sides of this transformation. He has co-authored eight publications in leading medical journals.
He holds degrees from Yale University (BA, Biology), Emory University (MBA), and Northwestern University (MS, Information Systems). He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For over two decades, Dr. Mahendra Bhandari has led robotic surgery’s global expansion. As CEO of the Vattikuti Foundation since 2010, he has driven adoption across India, Europe, and the UK, training hundreds of surgeons. He worked with Dr. Mani Menon at Henry Ford, advancing robotic kidney, pediatric, and transplant surgery. A recipient of the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honors, he has also led some of India’s most prominent healthcare institutions.
Dr. Mahendra Bhandari has been at the forefront of robotic surgery’s global expansion for over two decades. As CEO of the Vattikuti Foundation since 2010, he has driven the adoption of robotic surgery across India, Europe, and the United Kingdom, training hundreds of surgeons and establishing robotic surgery programs worldwide.
Working closely with Dr. Mani Menon for over four decades, Dr. Bhandari joined the Vattikuti Urology Institute at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit in 2006, where he significantly contributed to advancing robotics by leading the development of new urologic robotic surgical procedures: robotic kidney surgery, robotic pediatric urology, and robotic kidney transplant surgery.
A distinguished figure in global urology, Dr. Bhandari pioneered cadaveric kidney transplantation in India and has led some of the country’s most prominent healthcare institutions, serving as Director of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Vice Chancellor of King George’s Medical University.
His academic commitments extend well beyond the operating theatre: he holds a graduate certificate in Biostatistics from Harvard University and has completed a course in Data Sciences from MIT, reflecting a lifelong conviction that rigorous inquiry and evidence must underpin both clinical practice and institutional leadership. He is also an alumnus of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Dr. Bhandari has received the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honors, and has authored over 220 publications. He currently resides in Miami.
Leave your name and email, and we'll send you the advance reader's sampler and keep you posted on the launch.