Johnson & Johnson’s ($JNJ) Ethicon is teaming up with Touch Surgery to provide simulated surgical training through a free mobile app, with the aim of improving patient outcomes.
The training will cover the safe and effective use of Ethicon products and will be delivered via Touch Surgery’s 3-D simulations and technology platform to surgeons and students “anytime, anywhere,” according to a statement. Ethicon, J&J’s surgical device unit, markets products such as laparoscopic tools for bariatric and colorectal surgery, a plethora of sutures and tissue closures and tissue sealers.
Touch Surgery’s tech allows for virtual training in a 3-D operating room simulation. Its app currently helps 1 million users practice more than 75 different procedures across several surgical areas, according to the statement.
"We're looking to improve the standards of surgical care and treatment around the world, accelerating our pace of innovation and aiding the training of more physicians through collaborations such as this agreement with Touch Surgery," says Ethicon Chairman Michael del Prado,in the statement. "It reflects our broad-based approach to innovation and is another important step toward developing a trusted education ecosystem that improves patient outcomes."
While the collaboration has a global reach, Ethicon said in the statement that it is especially important in developing countries, where access to current training practices can be limited. The duo will start by focusing on training needs in general surgery, Ethicon said in the statement. But it is also considering bringing in other J&J device businesses over time to address training needs in other areas, including the orthopaedics and cardiovascular specialties.
- here's the statement
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