Activ Surgical Announces Formation of European Advisory Board
Digital surgery pioneer names prominent medical experts to guide pan-European commercialization efforts
BOSTON and ESSEN, Germany, Nov. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Activ Surgical™, a digital surgery pioneer, today announced the formation of a European Advisory Board, further investing in its commitment to democratize surgical care and empower global access to best-in-class surgery, regardless of location - saving millions of lives in the process. The European Advisory Board, which consists of world-class surgeons from leading hospital systems across the European Union (EU), will advise Activ Surgical on the company's go-to-market efforts for ActivSight, the company's first product to launch from the ActivEdge™ platform in 2021, as well as offer strategic input on future product plans. The EU Advisory Board will work in collaboration with the company's U.S. Advisory Board, which was formed in 2019.
The founding members of Activ Surgical's European Advisory Board include:
- Prof. Dr. Nicole Bouvy: Dr. Bouvy has spent the last 17 years as a surgeon and professor at Maastricht University Medical Center's (MUMC+) Department of Surgery. She specializes in the field of laparoscopic surgery, head and neck surgery and endocrine surgery, and is viewed as one of the leading experts for minimally invasive abdomen-based surgeries. Throughout her career, Dr. Bouvy has been deeply involved in research that introduces and develops new surgical techniques in order to improve patient outcomes. She is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at MUMC+, and serves as the Chairman of the Program Committee for the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery (EAES), of which she has been a member since 2017.
- PD Dr. Hans Fuchs: Dr. Fuchs is an assistant Professor of surgery and Head of Robotic Surgery for the department of surgery at the University of Cologne, a European High Volume Center for Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgery. He specializes in upper gastrointestinal surgery, as well as minimally invasive surgery leveraging the power of robotics. Much of Dr. Fuchs' scientific and academic research has been focused on improving outcomes after gastrointestinal surgery using new and minimally invasive technology. He is currently a member of multiple scientific societies. He sits on the technology committee of the EAES.
- Prof. Dr. Kai Nowak: Dr. Nowak is head of surgery at RoMed Klinikum Rosenheim Hospital in Germany. He is specialized in minimally invasive surgery with an emphasis on upper gastrointestinal procedures. Dr. Nowak's research interests include image-guided surgery and pioneering intraoperative applications of Indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence. He is a member of multiple scientific societies with Board Certification in thoracic surgery, vascular and general surgery.
- PD Dr. Benjamin Weixler: Dr. Weixler is an attending surgeon at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, which was named a top five hospital globally in 2020 by Newsweek. His areas of expertise include liver cancer, colorectal cancer and minimally invasive surgeries. Dr. Weixler's areas of interest and research include image-guided surgery in colorectal and liver cancer surgeries, as he led a clinical trial in Switzerland in 2014 with a mini-FLARE System for SLN detection in colon cancer surgery. He is a member of the German Society for General and Visceral Surgery, the Swiss Association of Residents and Staff Physicians, the Swiss Society of Surgery and the Swiss Medical Association.
- Prof. Dr. Luigi Boni: Dr. Boni is the Chief of Surgery at IRCCS - Ca' Granda - Policlinico Hospital and full professor of surgery at the University of Milan. He has deep expertise in minimally invasive surgery techniques having founded the Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center in Varese and served as its director for more than a decade. Dr. Boni is also considered a pioneer in the field of laparoscopic surgery such as single port, fluorescence guided surgery, mini-laparoscopy and TA-TME. He serves on the faculty of several renowned research centers across Europe, including the IRCAD in Strasburg, the Cuschieri Skill Center in Dundee and the European Surgical Institute in Hamburg, amongst many others.
Activ Surgical recently announced the opening of its European operations and the appointment of Holger Schipper as the general manager and vice president. The European team, along with the newly formed EU Advisory Board, will be tasked with growing visibility and demand for ActivSight and the ActiveEdge platform, which will enable collaborative and, in the future, autonomous surgery through the integration of computer vision, artificial intelligence and robotics. The hardware-agnostic platform enables existing surgical systems, from scopes to robots, to visualize, characterize and track tissue in real-time beyond today's human capability.
"I am thrilled to announce this esteemed group of surgeons as the founding members of our European Advisory Board," said Schipper. "Each of these appointees has extensive, firsthand experience regarding the current and unique challenges surgeons face in the operating room, and they share our vision for improving patient outcomes via breakthrough technology. Their expertise will play a critical role in the commercialization of our ActivEdge platform not only in Europe, but across the globe."
Statement from the Advisory Board: "Activ Surgical's vision and mission for the democratization of surgery is closely aligned with the scientific and academic research we have collectively supported for the majority of our careers. There is a dire need in the operating room to better leverage technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance patient safety and reduce surgical errors. We look forward to guiding Activ Surgical as it looks to commercialize its potentially-life saving ActivEdge platform throughout Europe and beyond."
For more information on Activ Surgical, please visit https://www.activsurgical.com/#about.
About Activ Surgical
Activ Surgical, the company that completed the world's first autonomous robotic surgery of soft tissue, is building hardware-agnostic surgical software that allows surgical systems to collaborate with surgeons. Activ Surgical's patent-protected surgical software platform reduces unintended and preventable surgical complications by enhancing a surgeon's intra-operative decision making. Activ Surgical is privately held, and backed by DNS Capital, GreatPoint Ventures (GPV), Artis Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, LRVHealth, Rising Tide VC, SONY Innovation Fund and 8VC. More information can be found at www.activsurgical.com.
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