Periodic Reporting for period 1 - P-ViTAL (The Precompetitive Steps of Virtual Transparency and Augmented Laparoscopy)
Période du rapport: 2018-05-01 au 2019-10-31
The ViTAL concept is to modify the laparoscope’s video in realtime to emulate organ transparency and to highlight features invisible to the naked eye. The proposed project P-ViTAL (Precompetitive steps for ViTAL) aimed at developing a precompetitive software implementation of ViTAL. Technically, ViTAL exploits information extracted from routine radiological images such as Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) acquired before surgery. Such a combination of visual information cannot be achieved mentally, even by experienced surgeons. Concretely, P-ViTAL had two objectives: 1) to develop a precompetitive prototype and 2) to create communication material.
P-ViTAL represented the next important step towards our goal of creating a startup company. A feasibility analysis already confirmed that the market is open to the ViTAL technology and that it will be well received.
Towards the end of the P-ViTAL project, we created a spin-off company named SurgAR, in October 2019. SurgAR is led by a surgeon gynaecologist, and has as founding members two other surgeons and P-ViTAL's PI. In this respect, P-ViTAL has been a very successful project, for it allowed us to jump start the company with a concrete prototype (WP1) and to also develop a preliminary communication strategy (WP2). The start-up company was the winner of the innovation contest I-LAB 2019, a real growth accelerator for innovative companies. This competition identifies and supports business creation projects that meet the major societal challenges. SurgAR obtained a private licence for its software, which was also filed at APP.