Touch Surgery, Enteric partner to improve safety and effectiveness of colorectal surgery

Touch Surgery has announced today that it has entered a strategic partnership with NIHR-funded Enteric Healthcare Technology Cooperative (HTC).

Touch Surgery partnering with Enteric will allow both organisations to work together on improving surgery and patient safety through mobile virtual reality technology. The partnership facilitates improved safety and effectiveness of bowel surgery, continence surgery, stoma procedures and electrical simulation for pain management. Touch Surgery will work with the clinical network of Enteric to develop surgical simulations for Colorectal Surgery. Enteric will facilitate independent research with its clinical network and will have access to Touch Surgery data on surgical process.

Professor Charles Knowles, Clinical Director at Enteric, visited the Touch Surgery lab and said:

The potential for surgical education and training is obvious (and proven already). I suspect however that this just scrapes the surface of this technology’s full potential which points to a surgical future where dumb video is replaced by a new augmented reality that assists the vision of the surgeon.

Professor Sir Norman Williams, former president of the Royal College of Surgeons and Clinical Director at Enteric, said:

We at Enteric are delighted to be working with Touch Surgery who have the technology, expertise and vision to develop new ways to assist in the training and development of surgeons. This exciting, interactive technology will be of particular benefit to surgical trainees before they actually perform their first procedure and will also assist established consultants planning, developing and learning innovative techniques.

George Sampson, a MedTech veteran, recently retired CEO of APA Parafricta Ltd and currently Interim Programme Manager at Enteric said:

Touch Surgery focuses on making surgeons better by expanding their opportunities to enhance clinical procedures utilizing modern technology: this has to be a significant step forward in training.

Dr Andre Chow, a general surgical trainee and a co-founder at Touch Surgery said:

This partnership represents a true opportunity to make advances in colorectal surgery that can impact patient care. We are incredibly excited to work with renowned surgeons such as Professor Knowles and Professor Williams, who are at the top of their fields, and clearly understand the possibilities for technologies such as ours at Touch Surgery to impact healthcare.