Planning for trauma surgery is complex. Bone segmentation allows the creation of a quantitative 3D model from a computed tomography (CT) scan (Q3DCT). Use of Q3DCT has proven repeatedly to reduce surgery and recovery time, and improve functional outcome, and cost efficiency. Q3DCT is better for the >5.0 million relevant patients globally per year, their surgical team, hospital
and insurance companies.
Currently, the process to transform a normal CT scan into an accurate Q3DCT for planning and measurements is extensive. As mathematical models fall short in their accuracy by several millimetres at least, it takes several hours to manually annotate the border of the bone in all the slides of the scan. In addition, several expensive non-linked software tools are needed. The current solution is costly (>€1,000), requires manual labour, and costs hours of time (>2.5h) which makes 3DCT useless in practical and especially in high-turnover settings. This means that this type of preparation is rarely
done. As accurate measurements are not done beforehand, extensive trauma surgical kits need to be present that are consigned and returned almost unused to device manufacturer, which adds to the cost of all
parties. Surgeons’ desire is to prepare with Q3DCT but current time and financial limitations withhold them.
The overall objective is to offer a digital planning service (SAAIS) that takes minutes, is fun to work with and is highly accurate. As this type of planning is normally outsourced and limited to complex surgery, we democratise virtual and 3D based planning and peer-to-peer communication and open it up to become the standard for all patients and surgeons.The objective for this project was to further study the commercial and legal framework for marketing of our Bone Surgery Preparation AIde Tool, extend and intensify our network of partners (corporate and clinical) and investigate IPR options, for Europe and with specific focus on the UK, Germany and Spain.
