High Volume Robotic-Assisted Bronchoscopies Offer Patients Exceptional Expertise

Nothing can replace experience when it comes to medical practitioners or health systems and their expertise in performing a certain procedure. For Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), part of Jefferson Health, that experience shows in a recent milestone: the pulmonology team has now performed more than 1,300 robotic-assisted bronchoscopies.

The team performs about 400 procedures a year, a number that exceeds the volume of most health systems in the country. Since the program began at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest in 2023, the team has performed 1,200 robotic-assisted bronchoscopies there. At Lehigh Valley Hospital–Pocono, where the program launched in 2025, the pulmonology team has performed 101 robotic bronchoscopies. Together, as of summer 2026, the network has now performed 1,301 robotic-assisted bronchoscopies.

A bronchoscopy is a procedure that uses a bronchoscope — a thin, flexible tube with a light and camera — to examine the airways and lungs. Physicians can also pass small tools through the bronchoscope to take a biopsy, or tissue sample, from an area of concern, such as a lung nodule.

Robotic-assisted bronchoscopy is a more advanced version of this procedure, designed specifically to help physicians reach small nodules located deep in the outer regions of the lung — areas that are difficult to access with a standard bronchoscope. It isn’t used for every bronchoscopy; it’s reserved for cases where a patient has a lung nodule that needs to be biopsied.

“The benefit of robotic bronchoscopy is being able to reach hard-to-access areas of the lung with exceptional accuracy, a very low complication rate and an increased ability to get a diagnostic answer,” says Daniel Kennedy-Schwed, MD, Associate Chief, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, who practices at LVPG Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine–1250 Cedar Crest.

Dr. Kennedy-Schwed explains the robotic system incorporates advanced “shape-sensing” technology, which measures the shape and position of the catheter inside the lung hundreds of times per second. This provides precise location and orientation information throughout navigation and biopsy. A 3D map on a computer screen gives the physician detailed imaging to help navigate to, and biopsy, nodules in hard-to-reach parts of the lung.

“The lungs have hundreds of airways, so finding the right location without a map would be extremely difficult,” Dr. Kennedy-Schwed says. “Shape sensing is like a GPS for the lung.”

Lung nodules are common, and the majority turn out to be benign, or noncancerous. They can form for many reasons — most often scarring left behind by a past lung infection, such as a fungal infection or tuberculosis. They can also originate from benign growths called hamartomas, inflammatory conditions, or old injuries. 

Whether a nodule needs further evaluation depends on factors like its size, whether it’s growing over time, and a patient’s individual risk factors, such as smoking history. If there’s concern, pulmonologists may recommend a biopsy to determine whether it’s cancerous.

“The biopsy is done under anesthesia and takes about 90 minutes,” Dr. Kennedy-Schwed says, noting he gets patients in quickly, usually within a week. “A CT scan gives us a map of the airways, and we use that map to navigate close to the nodule. The robotic procedure is very safe, with a low complication rate.”

Once the physician collects tissue samples, they’re sent to the pathology lab, where a pathologist examines them. Results are usually available in three to seven days, and about a week later, a pulmonologist meets with the patient to discuss the findings.

“It’s satisfying to be able to give our patients an answer, to find out what the nodule is,” Dr. Kennedy-Schwed says. “We’re very experienced, and that’s what makes our results so precise and our safety record so strong. It’s true of any medical procedure: the more you do, the better you become.”