Accelus appoints Kevin Foley, MD as its first Chief Robotics Officer

Accelus, a privately held medical technology company focused on accelerating the adoption of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) as the standard of care in spine, has announced the appointment of Kevin Foley, MD, as the Company’s first Chief Robotics Officer (CRO). Dr. Foley is a renowned neurosurgeon, chairman of the Semmes Murphey Clinic in Memphis, Tenn., and professor of neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, and biomedical engineering at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

As CRO, Dr. Foley will lead the ongoing launch and future development of Accelus’s Remi Robotic Navigation System, a robotic navigation and targeting system designed to assist with screw placement within the narrow bony pathways of patients’ spinal vertebrae. Accurate screw placement is a critical step in spine surgery, as misplaced screws can injure the surrounding spinal nerves and cause increased patient pain.

Dr. Foley has spent decades working to improve the safety, efficiency, and accuracy of spine surgery with the use of computerized-image guidance. He was a key contributor in the development of the Remi Robotic Navigation System and performed his first Remi case using Accelus’s LineSider Spinal System at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis in December 2021.

“As a surgeon, I was interested in developing a system that was designed to both exceed the precision of existing legacy spinal robotic systems and address the inherent significant limitations associated with those legacy systems, such as extended setup and teardown time, procedural workflow disruptions, large footprints, and high cost,” said Dr. Foley. “Remi addresses all of these concerns, providing equivalent accuracy¹ with an optimized procedural workflow and duration at a fraction of the cost of previous systems. I’m excited to partner with Accelus as their first CRO to further enhance Remi’s capabilities and drive awareness of the value this system brings to surgeons and healthcare facilities.”

Remi is a comprehensive robotic targeting and navigation platform that provides robotic-assisted pedicle screw placement for surgeons performing lumbar spine fixation. Comprised of a compact 30-inch by 30-inch workstation that serves as the primary user interface, Remi features an ultra-lightweight nearfield camera, designed to minimize the line-of-sight issues commonly experienced with the use of legacy surgical robotic systems, and a four-pound surgeon-controlled robotic targeting platform that surgeons can manually manipulate before locking in for targeting. Both the camera and targeting platform are attached to the OR table during surgery and stored in the workstation when not operational, minimizing Remi’s footprint and making the system suitable for use in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and smaller ORs.

A recent study published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science determined that Remi had a significantly shorter procedure workflow duration while maintaining equivalent accuracy when compared to the most common alternative robotic spine platform¹. The average total procedure time using the Remi system was 36.6 minutes compared to a total procedure time of 55.0 minutes using the alternative system.

“Remi was designed to provide significant value over legacy systems, and we are proud to partner with Dr. Foley to help expand the value we bring to surgeons, hospitals, ASCs, and the entire healthcare system,” said Chris Walsh, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Accelus. “We are excited to have Dr. Foley’s expertise, vision, and passion as we broaden the use of Remi and advance its capabilities as a system that meets the needs of spine surgeons, hospitals, and facilities around the world.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Foley to the Accelus team and believe his significant track record and deep expertise in the neurosurgery field, combined with Remi’s practicality and low price point, will help us accelerate the wide-scale adoption of robotics in spine surgery,” said Alex Lukianov, Chairman of Accelus’s Board of Directors. “I am very encouraged by the early results we are seeing in our initial Remi procedures and look forward to Dr. Foley leading our efforts to further develop the system to include 2D navigation and additional spine procedures.”

1. Soliman M A, Khan A, O’Connor T E, et al. (June 26, 2021) Accuracy and Efficiency of Fusion Robotics™ Versus Mazor-X™ in Single-Level Lumbar Pedicle Screw Placement. Cureus 13(6): e15939. doi:10.7759/cureus.15939

Source: Accelus.