Though robotic-assisted surgery systems like Intuitive’s industry-dominating da Vinci surgical robot have revolutionized the operating room with their superhuman precision, the technology isn’t as widely used as it perhaps could be due to the high costs of installation.
Enter: surgeon-powered robotics. Inspired both by the abilities of surgical robots and by most hospitals’ need for a cost-effective alternative to those machines, medtech makers have begun to develop devices that are controlled by surgeons—and so are priced like traditional surgical instruments—but offer the precision and dexterity of robotics.
Among the device makers leading this trend is FlexDex Surgical, which is developing robotics-inspired laparoscopic instruments for minimally invasive procedures.
That development will now be spurred along by a recently closed series AA funding round, which brought in $13 million for FlexDex, led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Almeda Ventures.
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At the top of FlexDex’s to-do list upon sewing up the financing is an upgrade to its existing articulating needle driver, which is used to perform endoscopic suturing. The Michigan-based company will also proceed to build out its portfolio with an entire line of laparoscopic instruments featuring robotic functionalities.
Along with their financial contributions, both J&J Innovation and Almeda Ventures will send representatives to join FlexDex’s board of directors to oversee those R&D efforts.
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The original iteration of the FlexDex needle driver is a hand-held, wristed device that allows surgeons to control the precision tip—and therefore the suturing needle—with even the most subtle movements and rotations of their hand, wrist and arm.
The device has already caught the eye of major medical manufacturers. A past partnership with Olympus, for example, resulted in the development of the 3D/FlexDex device, which combined the articulating needle driver with Olympus’ Endoeye Flex 3D digital imaging technology, giving surgeons a 100-degree view from inside the body and therefore potentially upping the precision of the procedure.
Editor's note: This article was updated on Aug. 30 to clarify that FlexDex and Olympus' partnership is no longer active.