Last week saw the public release of a collaborative project from Touch Surgery and Episurf Medical aimed at providing a surgical simulation training tool for Episurf Medical’s Episealer line of personalized knee resurfacing implants.
Touch Surgery, based in London, UK, is a mobile-first platform for the surgical community. Their services provide a virtual simulation environment to help surgeons learn and practice procedures, with the intent of driving better decisions and practices in the operating room. Since the mobile application’s initial release in 2010, Touch Surgery has amassed 1.3 million users globally in its efforts to connect the surgical community worldwide. In addition to its utility in training surgeons, the platform also provides a mechanism for scoring a user’s ability to safely and effectively perform a given procedure. Additionally, as we covered earlier this year, Touch Surgery has expanded its application’s functionality to enable interfacing with the Oculus Rift and with zSpace 3D tablets for a more immersive, realistic simulation experience.
Episurf Medical, founded in 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden, specializes in developing patient-specific, personalized treatment technology for knee defects and previously untreatable joint pain. Their smooth, weight-bearing Episealer implants offer a minimally invasive method to treat focal cartilage lesions and underlying defects in the bone. The goal of this treatment is to delay or prevent the need for joint replacement surgery, return mobility, and reduce patient pain. Episurf Medical also produces the imaging solutions that help tailor the Episealer implantation procedure and location for specific patients.
As a result of their collaboration, simulations for each of three versions of Episealer approaches are available now for free on iOS and Android systems via Touch Surgery’s application. The Episealer Condyle Solo is designed for placement in the medial or lateral condyle, the Episealer Trochlea Solo is intended for lesions in the trochlea area, and the Episealer Femoral Twin treats more elongated defects in the condyles and trochlea area.
Speaking of the release, Episurf Medical CEO Rosemary Cunningham Thomas stated that “the Touch Surgery platform will give us access to a global community of orthopedic surgeons previously unavailable to us.” Reached for exclusive comment by Medgadget editors, Dr. Jean Nehme M.D., the Co-Founder of Touch Surgery, added:
“Touch Surgery and Episurf Medical share a common goal and commitment to medical education and providing access to quality training for surgeons around the world. To really impact global surgery and improve patient outcomes, you must create tools that are available to surgeons, wherever they’re based. Where you live in the world shouldn’t determine whether you have access to safe surgery.”
Via: Episurf