Why have you developed this innovation?
"Our aim is to make surgical drills safer. Especially in the neck and the back, soft tissue can be almost glued to the bone, meaning it is difficult to avoid damaging the soft structures when drilling with currently available instruments.
Damage can happen if a drill hits the tissue behind a bone or inside a bone, or if a drill slips. Our drill improves safety in all these situations. In short, our invention is a single-use drill tip with a safety mechanism. It cuts the bone but does not cut anything soft.
This is not a new surgical system or a robot. Our innovation is groundbreaking because it can be attached to existing drills. Surgeons can easily start using it without any additional device purchases or additional training."
How did you execute your idea?
"Surgify was born when I was conducting research in neurosurgery during my studies. I spotted a need for the development of this type of technology.
There is often an emphasis on innovation, but the amount of work that product development requires is less discussed. The workload is enormous. Often one needs to come up with several innovations along the way. We have refined our concept in order to make as viable a product as possible. We started with a complicated sensor-automation mechanism that would have been much more difficult to turn into a product than the current drill function.
In the beginning, we were not supposed to found a start-up. We wanted to develop a new technology. This is impossible without resources however. It became clear that productisation is by far the best way to develop technology and prepare for export."
Helsinki is one of the world's best start-up ecosystems. All in all, the field of medical technology is currently doing well in Finland. It is becoming one of the most important fields of high tech export.
What does the future hold for you?
"Our current focus is shifting from product development to manufacturing and marketing. In 2019, we aim to complete the first procedures on patients and the product should be available on the market towards the end of the year. We have been running many different laboratory tests. I think it will be a great moment when our product is used for the first time to help a patient and the doctor treating them."
"I wish that Surgify becomes a successful international company. We have an obvious wish to see our product being used in every operating room in the world."
Surgify is developing bone drilling technology that protects soft tissue and reduces surgical complications. In addition, operations can be performed in less time and with higher precision. The innovation is easy to introduce in operating rooms around the world as it requires no additional special technology.
