As Titan Medical continues toward an anticipated 2020 commercial launch for the unique SPORT robotically-assisted surgical system, the company has announced several developments that illustrate the progress that’s been made.
In late March, Titan Medical partnered with Mimic Technologies to debut the first set of training modules for the SPORT. Mimic Technologies is well-known for its array of simulations for the Intuitive Surgical da Vinci platform, including the FlexVR, which provides a more portable option for developing skills related to the robotic system.
Jeffrey Berkely, CEO, founder, and chairman of Mimic Technologies, says the partnership with Titan Medical will serve surgeons well.
“We commend Titan Medical for prioritizing training as a critical component of its product offering,” says Berkely. “Together, Mimic Technologies and Titan Medical are developing comprehensive training curriculums that emphasize simulation and data analytics. By embracing advanced training modalities that give objective assessment of surgeon skill, we hope to maximize surgical efficiency and safety for surgeons looking to offer SPORT single port surgery to their patients.”
The commitment to simulation as a core component of the SPORT’s training curriculum is representative of Titan Medical’s plan to develop an efficient, accelerated process of development, FDA clearance, commercialization, and implementation. Not only is the availability of a robust training protocol expected to help in the regulatory clearance process, but the multiple simulation modules will allow surgeons to get fully up to speed on the SPORT, even in advance of its official launch.
(Image credit: Titan Medical)
Titan Medical also announced a U.S. patent was granted related to the orthogonally actuated instrument interface that is one of the most innovative features of the SPORT.
“The design and function of the instrument interface provides a unique and potentially easier instrument loading mechanism and facilitates close instrument proximity to the surgical site at the point of insertion,” says David McNally, President and CEO of Titan Medical. “These attributes enable more successful single-port surgery by providing quick instrument exchange through a small incision”.
In total, Titan Medical now holds 23 patents, and 48 more applications are pending.
For several months, the robotic surgery system has been undergoing tests at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, the Florida Hospital Nicholson Center in Orlando, and the Institute of Image-Guided Surgery in Strasbourg, France. Single-port procedures have been successfully mounted in a range of specialties, including gynecologic, urologic, colorectal, and general surgeries.
At the SPORT’s European location, a single-port prostatectomy was completed in a preclinical setting, using a human cadaver model. That signals the likelihood the Titan Medical system may eventually provide a shift away from the current standard of care for the surgery, which relies on available multi-port robotic technology.
“Prostatectomy is a highly complex and advanced urologic procedure that many surgeons have, up until now, only been able to perform using available multi-port robotic technology,” says McNally. “The surgeon who performed the single-port prostatectomy procedure intended to push the envelope and determine whether the same procedure could be performed through a single incision, while at the same time conducting a virtually scarless operation and potentially reducing inpatient duration”
The Titan Medical SPORT remains on-target for final regulatory submissions in late 2019.
