The first daVinci robot in North Carolina was used for heart surgery at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, the teaching hospital at East Carolina University, in May 2000.

Today, more than 1,300 U.S. hospitals have the daVinci robotic system, named for the Renaissance painter. More than 25 N.C. hospitals now offer daVinci robotic surgery, including 10 in the Charlotte area.

On Saturday, visitors to Discovery Place science museum will have to "test-drive" the robot by moving the controls as a doctor would in surgery.

Doctors from Midtown OB-GYN, Southeast Bariatrics and Urology Specialists of the Carolinas will be on hand to talk about the device, on loan from Intuitive Surgical in California.

A robot-assisted surgery looks like something out of science fiction. Instead of standing beside the patient, the surgeon sits at a console with a 3-D viewer, hand controls and foot pedals.

The huge robot with three spiderlike arms hovers over the patient. The ends of each arm reach through small incisions in the patient's chest. Two arms have tiny pincers attached; the third holds a camera that projects a view of the heart, magnified 12 times, to the console.

When the surgeon moves his hands and feet at the console, the robot's arms respond, grasping and cutting, as the doctor watches on his viewer.

The first Charlotte hospitals to offer robotic surgery were Carolinas Medical Center and Presbyterian Hospital in 2005. Other hospitals have since added them. They include CMC-University and CMC-Mercy in Charlotte, CMC-Pineville, CMC-NorthEast in Concord, Presbyterian Hospital Matthews, Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville, Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia and Lake Norman Regional Medical Center in Mooresville.

The daVinci system is used for gynecological, urological, cardiothoracic and bariatric surgeries. Whether outcomes are better with the robot than traditional surgery is still a subject of debate, but proponents say patients who have robotic surgery heal more quickly with less pain.

The robot will be on display from 10a.m. to 6p.m. at Discovery Place, 301 North Tryon St. Tickets are $12 for adults (14-59); $9 for children (2-13) and seniors (60+); and free for children younger than 2. For more information: www.davincisurgery.com.

More on sports screenings

Last week I wrote about the "Heart of a Champion" sports screenings being offered to Charlotte-area student-athletes by Carolinas Medical Center and OrthoCarolina. They include electrocardiograms and echocardiograms to detect heart problems.

I've since learned that Presbyterian Sports Medicine also provides EKGs as part of free physicals to Union County public high school athletes.

Screening day is June4 at Sun Valley High School, starting at 8a.m. Each school is assigned a specific time slot; contact schools for details.

By the way, the mother of a home-schooled athlete inquired about where she could take her son for screening. The CMC and Presbyterian programs are open only to students at participating schools. Home-schooled students have to see private physicians for physicals.