Surgical Science Appoints Tom Englund as CEO

Surgical Science has announced that Tom Englund will take over as the new CEO of Surgical Science on October 1, 2024. Tom currently works as COO and Deputy CEO at Instabee. He will succeed the current CEO Gisli Hennermark, who after October 1 will remain in an advisory role until the end of March 2025. Gisli will also continue as a member of the Board of Directors of Surgical Science.

On March 12, 2024, it was announced that Gisli Hennermark, CEO of Surgical Science Sweden AB (publ) since nine years, had informed the Board of Directors that he intended to leave his position. Furthermore, it was announced that Gisli would remain as CEO until the Board of Directors had appointed a new CEO and that he would act as an advisor to the new CEO until March 2025. At the Annual General Meeting on May 16, 2024, Gisli was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of Surgical Science.

The process of finding Gisli’s successor has been ongoing since March and has been led by the Chairman of the Board Roland Bengtsson.

Tom Englund holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linköping University. Previous experiences include Accenture and Roland Berger, various roles within Atlas Copco where Tom spent seven years based in Stockholm and Shanghai, and Tobii where he worked for twelve years. At Tobii, a leading company in eye tracking, revenues during Tom’s tenure grew from around SEK 200 million to SEK 1.4 billion. Tom was CEO of the Tobii Pro business unit and later also Deputy CEO of the Tobii Group. Since 2021, Tom has worked for Instabox, which through a merger with Budbee in 2022 became Instabee, a logistics company in deliveries to parcel lockers and homes with around 1,100 employees and a turnover of approximately SEK 2 billion. Tom is today the COO and Deputy CEO at Instabee.

From his roles, Tom has experience in leading fast-growing high-tech organizations with a focus on profitable growth, developing business models, acquiring and integrating businesses, and scaling and merging organizations in a complex structure and international environment.

Tom will start his employment in Surgical Science on August 19 and will assume the position of CEO on October 1, 2024. Tom has no board assignments except for internal assignments within the Instabee Group.

“In Tom, we have found the next leader for Surgical Science’s continued profitable growth. We see great opportunities to scale up the company in the coming years. The digitalization of healthcare is only in its beginnings and Surgical Science’s contribution to patient safety through simulation has great growth opportunities. The fact that Gisli will act as an advisor for a period of time enables an efficient transition and for Tom to quickly get to know the business. Tom’s leadership skills, organizational know-how, experience of acquisitions and ability to develop business models for an increasing share of software services are some of the qualities that have made the Board of Directors confident that Tom is the right person to lead Surgical Science forward,” says Roland Bengtsson, Chairman of the Board of Surgical Science.

“I am grateful for the Board’s confidence and feel a great enthusiasm to contribute to Surgical Science’s continued growth journey. The company is clearly a world leader in its field and has a strong and important purpose in developing capabilities in surgery and patient safety. I am impressed with the position and the results that have been created so far and I look forward to working together with all professional and committed employees to develop the company further”, says Tom Englund, incoming CEO of Surgical Science.

Source: Surgical Science

Marion Surgical Announces Development of ‘Minimally Invasive’ Robot Surgery Game 

Marion Surgical has announced the development of its Minimally Invasive robot surgery game where you must solve puzzles, burn, slice, dice and suture aliens and cyborg patients to survive! 
 
The game has realistic physics and tools that have been engineered by surgeons to not only improve their skills but for everyone to enjoy. 

Learn more about Minimally Invasive here.

https://vimeo.com/851291379

Marion Surgical and Carleton University Secure Funding to Co-develop Simulator for Ultrasound-Robot-Guided PCNL

Marion Surgical and Carleton University have secured $592,000 NSERC Alliance Funding to co-develop a simulator for ultrasound- Robot-Guided PCNL with the Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC).

“This partnership will develop the first-of-its-kind ultrasound-guided PCNL training simulator, with improved haptic feedback and a new collaborative human-robot framework to improve kidney access. This project holds great promise both in terms of theoretical and practical contributions and will push the boundaries of VR integrated with robotics for medical training”. Says Carlos Rossa, PhD, P.Eng Associate Professor Systems and Computer Engineering Carleton University

This collaboration has two objectives: firstly, to expand Marion’s simulator to support ultrasound images, and secondly, to explore the feasibility of the integrating the Ultra Sound, visual servoing for tool tracking, and path planning for one the first-ever implementation of a human-robot collaborative USPCNL system.

“We are thrilled to announce the expansion of Marion Surgical’s PCNL simulator, integrating ultrasound capabilities,” says Ben Sainsbury, CEO of Marion Surgical. “This enhancement opens up our product to new markets such as China and parts of Europe, who are increasingly using UL for kidney access because of concerns with radiation exposure associated with fluoroscopic imaging.”

Robot-guided Simulator

Marions platform uses real patient data with proprietary haptics that enables surgeons to learn, collaborate, practice and share procedures in a realistic, safe, cloud hosted environment. In addition to its flagship PCNL haptic simulator Marion recently has developed a new simulator for learning how to operate a surgical robotic (to be released in 2023).

The total NSERC Alliance project amount is $592,000 for a 4-year collaboration between Marion Surgical and Carleton University in collaboration with the Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC)  to develop the first-of-its-kind cyber-physical training simulator for ultrasound-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

Source: Marion Surgical

Aneurin Bevan Health Board adopts LapAR™

Inovus Medical has announced further adoption of the LapAR™ high fidelity laparoscopic simulator by the Aneurin Bevan Health Board in South Wales. The LapAR™ Pro simulators will be based at the Grange hospital, which was constructed in 2020 to provide care to 600,000 patients across the Gwent region.

The LapAR™ Pro simulators will be used for delivering hands on surgical skills training at the main hospital site. With an excellent understanding of the modern day pressures on surgical training, the simulation team and surgical tutors at the health board have also adopted the LapAR™ Take home simulators. The LapAR™ Take Home allows high fidelity surgical training without boundaries and will be provided to surgical trainees to facilitate practical skills training in settings away from the simulation centre setting, catering to the increasingly dispersed training landscape.

The LapAR™ ecosystem is powered by Inovus’ digital surgical training platform. The platform is designed to ensure modern surgical training techniques, such as boundless hands-on skills training with LapAR™, don’t suffer from a lack of connectivity between trainee and tutor. The web-based platform facilitates connected surgical training; tutors can track performance, review training events and issue certificates of competency from any web enabled device while trainees are able to watch back their simulated procedures and receive guidance on training goals.

Natalie Davies, Service Improvement Manager Obstetrics and Gynaecology commented, “ABUHB have managed to secure funding to purchase Inovus simulators to support our Laparoscopic and minimal invasive surgery programme due to start in September 2022. The programme will enhance the surgical training in Gynaecology through a combination of theoretical and practical modules which many of our trainees have been unable to complete as a result COVID-19. The take home boxes will enable our junior doctors to practice and complete tasks at home, with the LapAR™ PRO providing a high-fidelity system to complete assessments and support teaching in our new simulation room”.

Elliot Street CEO, Inovus Medical commented, “The adoption of the Inovus digital surgical training platform and the use of LapAR™ will ensure the surgical trainees at Aueurin Bevan have access to the very latest in high fidelity, augmented reality, simulation. The digital surgical platform offers the trainees a unique advantage of tracking their performance and monitoring their improved skills over time, with the ultimate goal of developing safer, more confident surgeons”.

The adoption of LapAR™ and the digital surgical platform is the first step for Aneurin Bevan Health board in a strategic agenda focussed on delivering best in class surgical training across multiple specialties. The platform will initially be in use with the gynaecology teams with near term plans to add connectivity to the general surgery training programmes and longer-term plans to extend to other specialties.

If you would like further information on adopting LapAR™ and the digital surgical training platform in your trust then email: [email protected].

Source: Inovus Medical.

Inovus Medical awarded Royal College of Surgeons England (RCSEng) accreditation

Inovus Medical has today announced that it has been awarded accreditation by the Royal College of Surgeons for England.

The accreditation, initially valid for a period of three years from June 2022 to June 2025, has been granted to the company’s innovative digital surgical training platform. The accreditation initially covers a range of modules including the LapPass® curriculum, for which Inovus exclusively partners with the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ALSGBI).

The RSCEng accreditation process includes assessment of resources and faculty, the education portfolio, and the infrastructure and quality management processes which underpin the delivery of the educational product. Accreditation is only awarded where there is a clear demonstration of, and a broad confidence in, the quality of each of these components.

Deemed as a quality mark for surgical education, the accreditation covers Inovus Medical’s LapAR™ ecosystem which allows simulation and training centres to deliver both face-to-face and remote surgical training. The enhanced augmented reality-based platform connects trainees and faculty through a digital surgery training system that provides objective metrics and performance tracking, including video recording and the ability to give subjective comments from faculty prior to completion of formal assessments. The accreditation provides major added value to the thousands of trainee surgeons already using the platform who will now be able to earn CPD points for time spent training within it.

Dr David Rawaf Clinical Excellence Lead, Inovus Medical commented: “RCSEng centre accreditation will progress Inovus Medical’s mission of becoming one of the world’s partners for surgical training. We will now not only be able to pass on this added value to the people who use our platforms, but also to simulation centres and trusts wishing to run courses utilising the Inovus platform. As part of the accreditation process, we validated and peer-reviewed both objective and subjective data from the simulators. In doing so have further reinforced the evidence-base supporting the widespread adoption of high-fidelity “Augmented Reality” surgical training supported by Inovus technology.”

Mr Ananda Nanu MBBS, MSOrth, FRCS, MCHOrth, FRCSOrth, RCSEng QA Lead and Chair of the Committee that governs QA and Accreditation commented: “Congratulations to Inovus Medical for this achievement. This accreditation demonstrates their commitment to the highest standards of surgical education and training.”

Dr Elliot Street CEO, Inovus Medical commented, “Obtaining RCSE accreditation is a massive achievement for us all at Inovus Medical, and one we are extremely proud of. It validates the commitment we have to driving the highest standards of surgical training across the globe. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Royal Colleges and the Associations involved in surgical training on their various curriculums with a view to enhancing trainee experience and ultimately improve surgical care globally.”

Source: Inovus Medical.

Project for Futuristic Surgical Simulation Training Receives CHF 12 Million in Funding

Swiss Innovation Agency, Innosuisse, has awarded a grant of CHF 12 million over the next four years in support of the “PROFICIENCY” project for surgical simulation. The project initiates a paradigm shift in practical training in surgery: away from primary training in the operating room, towards standardized and proficiency-based surgical training curricula. 

Thanks to technical advances in virtual and augmented reality, many surgical procedures can already be simulated with lifelike accuracy. However, practical training still frequently occurs in the operating room. The disadvantage of this form of training became obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic: surgical training was largely restricted or not possible at all in most hospitals during this time.

“With the ‘PROFICIENCY’ project, we want to advance simulator-based continuing education in surgery,” explains Prof. Bruno Schmied, M.D., Chief of Surgery at the Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen. “The innovative continuing education program – analogous to the training and continuing education of pilots on flight simulators – will decisively improve surgical continuing education in open and minimally invasive surgery and initiate the desired paradigm shift to competence-oriented and didactically high-quality simulator-supported training.”

As a first decisive step, the project will design a modular curriculum that is aligned with the requirements of surgical societies and integrated on a digitally accessible learning platform. This standardized, evidence-based and performance-oriented training program will be taught using the latest didactic methods and empower surgeons to acquire skills through self-paced learning.

In a second major step, the consortium will develop innovative training tools for simulating different surgical scenarios, ranging from online virtual reality simulation, augmented box trainers, high-end simulators, to augmented-reality-enabled open surgery and immersive remote operation room participation.

“This flagship innovation project brings together the necessary medical, pedagogical and technical expertise to create the most advanced and comprehensive surgical training curriculum ever developed,” said Stefan Tuchschmid, PhD, co-CEO and founder of VirtaMed.

The consortium of project partners includes the Cantonal Hospital of St.Gallen, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), the University of Zurich with Balgrist University Hospital, ETH Zurich and Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), as well as the companies VirtaMed AG, Microsoft Schweiz GmbH, ORamaVR S.A. and Atracsys LLC.

For more information about the “PROFICIENCY” project, visit: www.surgicalproficiency.ch

Source: VirtaMed.

Inovus Medical Closes $7 Million Investment Round

Inovus Medical has announced the successful completion of a $7 million investment round. The round includes an investment of $6.2 million from Norgine Ventures.

The investment follows the remarkably successful launch of the company’s high fidelity laparoscopic simulation platform, LapAR™. Since its launch during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the LapAR™ has quickly become the platform of choice for high fidelity laparoscopic skills training across the UK. The LapAR™ was developed with a $1.5 million product development contract from SBRI Healthcare and has been adopted by several national training programmes, leading NHS hospitals such as Guys and St Thomas and Cambridge University hospitals and medical technology giants Olympus and Ethicon. The core technology used in LapAR™ includes a proprietary approach to augmented reality that enables ‘hybrid, headset free’ surgical simulation. The technology also utilises computer vision and machine learning algorithms combined with a cloud based digital training platform. Earlier this year, the company announced that the novel technology used in LapAR™ has also been applied to its new high fidelity hysteroscopy simulator, HystAR™.

The investment announced this week will be used to expand the company’s direct commercial presence in key international markets, strengthen its global customer support capacity and significantly increase the capacity of its in-house development teams.

Inovus deploys a novel approach to delivery of high-fidelity surgical training by combining soft tissue phantoms with digital platforms. This allows surgeons to train using real surgical instruments, generating ‘natural haptics’ (feel) within a highly immersive environment. The recent investment will allow the company to accelerate the commercialisation of a suite of surgical training technologies that utilise this unique approach, adding to its existing portfolio of laparoscopic and hysteroscopy simulators. 

Dr Elliot Street, Co-founder and CEO of Inovus Medical said, “We are extremely excited that the Norgine Ventures team have joined us on our mission of becoming the world’s partner for surgical training. In addition to the acceleration of our scale up activities that this funding brings, we are lucky to have the backing of Norgine Ventures and all the market insights and expertise such a partner adds. At every interaction with the Norgine Ventures team it has been clear they understand and support our vision for driving a paradigm shift in the way we train surgeons to improve surgical care, it promises to be an exciting partnership ahead.”

Peter Stein, Norgine Ventures said “The surgical training technology and digital surgery sectors represent an attractive growth opportunity. Norgine Ventures are excited to be backing what we feel is a differentiated technology and a team with deep sector knowledge that has a proven track record of driving sustainable growth”.

The investment from Norgine Ventures follows an initial $1million financing from Mercia Asset Management and high net worth investors in late 2018. All original investors remain part of the Inovus journey following receipt of this new financing. 

Mark Wyatt, Investment Director at Mercia Asset management said “We are happy to see the investment NPIF made catalysing further investment and job creation. It is pleasing to see international investors being attracted to the region by the quality of the businesses that NPIF has played a part in developing.  It is a testament to the hard work, talent and vision of all those involved at Inovus, and we look forward to seeing them continue to grow following this significant injection of capital”.

With their global headquarters based in St Helens, part of the Liverpool City Region, and already exporting to over 70 countries worldwide, Inovus continues to spearhead the region’s drive to become a global leader in Innovation, Advanced Manufacturing and Life Sciences. The business plans to invest significantly in local talent development and the evolving innovation ecosystem across the LCR following this recent investment.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “The Liverpool City Region is home to a thriving ecosystem of leading innovators and industries to rival anywhere in the world. We’re fortunate to be building our future on enviable foundations – but we know that there is still so much potential yet to unlock – which is why I’m on a mission to make our region the UK’s powerhouse for innovation.

“However, innovation can’t exist in a vacuum – we need the support of forward-thinking businesses with the ambition to join us on our journey. Inovus Medical is one of the companies that we believe shares our vision for the future of our region – which is why it was one of the first companies that we supported through our £3m Future Innovation Fund. It’s clear that they’re already reaping the rewards of our investment – I’m really excited to see what the future has in store for them.”