Saint Agnes expands robotic surgery program to boost Valley care
Saint Agnes is widening its robotic surgery program as 63% of Central Valley residents say cost has delayed care, aiming to keep more specialty treatment in Fresno.
Saint Agnes Medical Center is widening its robotic surgery program as Fresno County patients keep running into the Valley’s long-standing specialty care gap. Hospital leaders say the goal is simple: keep more advanced procedures closer to home instead of sending families to the Bay Area or Southern California, while using newer tools to improve precision and recovery.
The expansion builds on a program Saint Agnes says began in 2001, when it introduced robotic-assisted surgery to the Central Valley and became the first hospital in Fresno to bring the technology to the community. In March 2025, Saint Agnes said it became the first hospital in the Central Valley to acquire the Intuitive da Vinci 5 surgical system, which the hospital says gives surgeons enhanced precision, dexterity and control for minimally invasive operations.
Dr. Kashif Malik, a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon, said the technology lets a surgeon sit at a console and guide robotic arms through smaller incisions than older open procedures required. He pointed to lobectomies for lung cancer as one example of how the approach can change patient recovery, replacing larger openings with smaller access points that can mean less pain, shorter hospital stays and faster recovery. Saint Agnes has also expanded the robotic program to include thoracic surgery, with Malik joining the team in late 2025, and Intuitive later said the da Vinci 5 received FDA clearance for certain cardiac procedures in January 2026.
The access argument is where the expansion hits home for Fresno County families. Dr. Mireya Samaniego said the aim is to bring that level of treatment home so patients do not have to absorb the emotional, physical and financial strain of leaving the Valley for surgery. That concern matches broader regional data: a 2024 California Health Care Foundation survey found 63% of Central Valley residents said they had skipped or delayed care because of cost in the past year, and the survey focused on residents of Mariposa, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties. University of California data also shows the San Joaquin Valley has 39 primary care providers per 100,000 people, compared with 64 per 100,000 in the Bay Area.
Saint Agnes says it plans to keep recruiting specialists to grow the program further. Dr. Russell Martin has now performed more than 3,000 robotic surgeries at Saint Agnes, a marker of how deeply the hospital has invested in the technology. For Valley patients, the question is no longer whether robotic surgery exists in Fresno, but whether that capacity can finally keep more complex care inside the region.
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