We are now raising our series A to go commercial. Our backers include granting agencies like the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the State of Utah (where we are based) and private funding from Fusion Fund (an early stage VC) – and sophisticated angels (a prominent neurosurgeon and executives from Medtronic, Johnsons & Johnson and GE Healthcare). We are a team of 12, and have developed everything from concept to pilot production with less than $6M. Medgadget: At what stage is the company today? (Number of team members, stage of development and use, investment funding, etc.)Ītria: Despite having received FDA 510(k) clearance for nView s1 last year, we are still an early stage company. Here is where AI comes into play, by filling the gaps of missing data to provide good images quickly and with minimum amounts of radiation. The challenge is that you don’t have all the data you would need to create a good image.
Our approach was to minimize the data we gather during imaging, to speed-up data acquisition time and to reduce radiation dose. This allows imaging to be used throughout the procedure, and removes the adoption barriers that traditional 3D technologies are associated with.Ĭreating 3D images can require a lot of x-ray radiation and it can take a lot of time. nView s1 is a breakthrough imaging system because it provides 3D images in just a few seconds, without interrupting the surgical workflow. In the thoracic spine for example, the rate of misplaced implants can be as high as 18%. The challenge with fluoroscopy is that it is 2D imaging, and it is well accepted that this leads to surgical errors, like misplaced implants. Medgadget: What makes nView medical stand out compared to traditional intra-operative imaging? How does the nView s1 use AI to achieve a lower radiation dose?Ītria: Traditional intra-operative imaging in orthopedics is fluoroscopy, which is basically fast x-ray imaging used at key steps in the procedure. We identified imaging as being the weak link in this chain of technologies, and took the bold approach to conceive the right imaging system from scratch. Layers of technology had piled up… something had to be rethought for navigation to work in a simple and reliable manner. The patient needed an additional scan before the operation to have the 3D image the surgeon had to have special instrumentation for it to be tracked and recognized by the navigation system the image overlay had to be adjusted for it to accurately represent the actual position of the tracked instrument through a tedious process called registration. I asked myself why, and the answer was obvious: technology was not simple enough. Navigation started in the 90s, and yet, the majority of orthopedic and spine procedures are still not navigated. Instead, he looks at a 3D image on a screen to see where in the bone he is drilling, or where he is placing that implant. He doesn’t have direct visualization to the bone he is drilling into, or where he is placing an implant.
Imagine a surgeon: he is operating on a patient through a small incision. What was the inspiration behind the idea and product?Ĭristian Atria, nView medical: Before founding nView medical I used to develop surgical navigation products. We asked CEO Cristian Atria about nView medical and the nView s1 imaging system.Ĭici Zhou, Medgadget: Tell me about the founding of nView medical. This allows surgeons to visualize structures without interrupting the surgical workflow. The company’s flagship product, the nView s1, utilizes AI to accurately and quickly construct images with less radiation. is developing an intraoperative imaging system that is better than traditional fluoroscopy. Alternative 3D imaging systems provide higher accuracy, but they sometimes require pausing the surgery and exposing patients to significant radiation. However, fluoroscopy is a 2D technology that can lead to surgical inaccuracies. Fluoroscopy is used in surgical procedures to visualize structures and tools in real-time, allowing surgeons to monitor the movement of a device, instrument, or body part.
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