Distance is dead. On September 7, 2001 Professor Jacques Marescaux, M.D. of the European Institute of Telesurgery and Dr. Michel Gagner performed the first transatlantic telesurgery from a downtown New York office building on a woman in France using remote-controlled surgical arms. The surgery was made possible by high-speed fiber optic connections and advanced robotics that reduced a distance of 4,000 miles to less than 200 milliseconds. Specialized surgeons now routinely perform remote surgeries at hospitals around the world.