Redbox , but that doesn’t mean it can’t (sorta) live on in your living room. Redbox’s with . It also left over 24,000 of its iconic red machines at various retail locations, .

The machines are heavy, cumbersome and difficult to dispose of, with a former RedBox executive suggesting it costs $500 to remove one of the kiosks. This is compounded by the fact that some of the machines are actually embedded in concrete. The retailers plan on salvaging them for scrap, at a loss, which has led collectors to take the initiative to scoop some up before they hit the scrap heap.

Jacob Helton, a 19-year-old from North Carolina, picked one up from a drugstore because he “felt like Redbox is important in the history of American media.” He went on to make the point that “its collapse marks the end of the video rental era.” Now he has a giant DVD-renting machine in his garage.

Now, before you roll up to a local Walgreens and ask about the dilapidated Redbox machine sitting outside, there are some caveats. First of all, these things are heavy and extremely difficult to transport. As mentioned above, some are even dipped in concrete.

Also, these machines suck up massive amounts of energy during use. Walgreens told a judge that it costs the company $184,000 each month to power 5,400 kiosks. That breaks down to around $35 per month for a single machine. They also have to be regularly maintained. However, if you do have a large DVD collection, each machine can hold around 500 of them. You can pretend to rent them out to friends and family and, well, that’s about it.

Redbox was on top of the world just ten years ago, boasting of nearly $2 billion in yearly revenue and installing over 43,000 kiosks across the US and Canada. It managed to hang on a bit longer than Blockbuster, but now it’s gone forever.

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MARS is empowering surgeons with enhanced control, reducing patient recovery times, and streamlining hospital operations through innovative magnetic technology.

Dr. Alberto Rodriguez-Navarro is advancing minimally invasive surgery with his innovative technology, the MARS Surgical System.

“Our purpose as a company is to develop technology to empower the surgeon. That’s why we see our latest development, MARS Surgical System, making surgery better.”

Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro is a surgeon and the CEO, Founder, and President of Levita® Magnetics, a medical equipment manufacturing company established in 2011. For the past 13 years, he and his team have developed proprietary technology that maximizes the benefit of minimally invasive surgery—for both surgeons and patients.

“We started with a manual system [magnetic surgery], in which you have to move the magnet with your hand. Now, we’ve evolved to create a robotic system that controls the movement of the magnet.”

What does this mean for surgeons?

The MARS System, which leverages Levita Magnetics’ proprietary Dynamic Magnetic Positioning technology, builds on the clinical benefits of the Levita Magnetic Surgical System providing faster recovery, less pain, and fewer scars for patients. But now, the team has developed surgeon-controlled arms allowing full control over the laparoscopic view and the magnetic retractor.

The MARS system gives surgeons “two extra arms” for instrument control, as well as camera stability, removing the need for additional assistance, which standard abdominal surgeries require.

“MARS represents a noteworthy advancement and is part of the pathway to enhance minimally invasive surgery for healthcare institutions, surgeons, and most importantly, for patients. It’s also remarkably easy to use,” said Prof Dr. Matthew Kroh, MD, vice chair of innovation and technology at the Cleveland Clinic, who performed the first procedure with the new system last September 2023.

“We aim to show that this revolutionary technology can empower surgeons with increased control and better visualization while reducing the number of incisions, delivering significant patient benefits,” says Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro.

For Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro, who worked for nearly ten years as a surgeon and performed over 3,000 laparoscopic surgeries, this is a major feat in the advancement of minimally invasive surgeries.

Levita is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and the MARS System is FDA-approved and currently available in the U.S. and Chile. It is cleared for laparoscopic bariatric surgeries, cholecystectomy (gallbladder), prostate, and colorectal procedures.

“We invented a system to deploy a magnetic piece inside the abdomen, and then using a powerful external magnet, we generate the movement to reduce the number of incisions typically needed for the surgery,” Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro explains. “That’s the core benefit—we reduce the number of incisions for the patient. Meanwhile, the surgeon maintains the ability to perform the procedure in a fast and reliable way.”

While it may be easier for surgeons to continue performing standard procedures, learning and integrating this new system has a “triple impact” for patients, surgeons, and hospitals—and aids in providing more efficient, economical care.

The current state of the U.S. healthcare system is dire—a very circulated topic—and Duquesne University forecasts a shortage of more than 29,400 nurse practitioners by 2025. Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro’s system removes the need for an additional assistant during procedures and cuts recovery time for patients. The MARS System is easy to use, as Prof Dr. Matthew Kroh noted above, and can also “play a major role in the transition of high volume abdominal procedures to an ambulatory or same-day discharge setting,” says Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro.

In 2018, there were 9.6 million inpatient operating room procedures of which 11.2% were MIS and 2.9% were robotic-assisted. Cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) surgery is one of the most common procedures performed worldwide, and Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro positions Levita Magnetics as an economical medical innovation to lessen the demand on the current healthcare system.

“That’s the opportunity that we see. We can bring a solution that is a fraction of the cost of other robotic leaders in surgery, plus the clinical benefit and the reduction of personnel, to make the procedure more cost-effective. That’s our opportunity in the market,” he says.

In April, Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro performed the first-ever augmented reality abdominal surgery in Santiago, Chile using the MARS System and Meta Quest 3 headset. “It opens a new world for how the surgeon can access [data] in real-time during the surgery,” he told Fox News Digital. “It will be a revolution in how surgeries are performed, and I’m very happy [about] how technology is empowering surgeons to do more.”

While the early stages of Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro’s ideations faced criticism and doubt, he understood that initial resistance is normal for any new technology, and today he and his team have proven the effectiveness and revolutionary capabilities of magnetic surgery.

“Our goal as a company is to continue to develop tools for surgeons to have better surgical outcomes,” Dr. Rodriguez-Navarro concludes. “Robots, AI, and magnets will be utilized heavily in surgical procedures in the coming years.”

To learn more about Levita Magnetics, visit the website here. To get in touch with Dr. Alberto Rodriguez-Navarro, reach out to him on LinkedIn.

VentureBeat newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content. 

Team,

Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together. Beyond navigating our current environment, restoring our company requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term.

We need to be clear-eyed about the work we face and realistic about the time it will take to achieve key milestones on the path to recovery. We also need to focus our resources on performing and innovating in the areas that are core to who we are, rather than spreading ourselves across too many efforts that can often result in underperformance and underinvestment.

With that in mind, today I am sharing some difficult decisions and several program updates: 

On the 777X program, the challenges we have faced in development, as well as from the flight test pause and ongoing work stoppage, will delay our program timeline. We have notified customers that we now expect first delivery in 2026.

We plan to build and deliver the remaining 767 Freighters ordered by our customers and then conclude production of the commercial program in 2027. Production for the KC-46A Tanker will continue.

In BDS, our performance on fixed-price development programs is simply not where it needs to be. We expect substantial new losses in BDS this quarter, driven by the work stoppage on commercial derivatives, continued program challenges and our decision to complete production on the 767 freighter. I will be providing additional oversight of this business and these programs.

Along with the above actions, we must also reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities. Over the coming months, we are planning to reduce the size of our total workforce by roughly 10 percent. These reductions will include executives, managers and employees. Next week, your leadership team will share more tailored information about what this means for your organization. Based on this decision, we will not proceed with the next cycle of furloughs. 

As we move through this process, we will maintain our steadfast focus on safety, quality and delivering for our customers. We know these decisions will cause difficulty for you, your families and our team, and I sincerely wish we could avoid taking them. However, the state of our business and our future recovery require tough actions.

We will be transparent with you regarding the timing and impact of these steps, and we will be professional and supportive to everyone along the way. 

Thank you for all that you are doing through this very challenging time at Boeing. We will navigate through this moment. We will re-focus our company, and we will restore trust with all those who depend on us.

Kelly