Toulouse-based Medical Device company MedTech announced today that it has been given the “CE” approval it needed in order to start selling ROSA Spine, the spinal surgery robot that it has been working on. This will be the second robotic device that MedTech has brought to market, following the commercialization of their famed ROSA neurosurgery robot.
In their announcement[fr], the company stated that in Europe alone there are over 1,000,000 procedures in Europe alone that could benefit from the precision of ROSA Spine. ROSA Spine, like ROSA, would be piloted by a spinal surgeon, who would be able to perform more invasive manoeuvres safely, as well as reduce the risk of human error that currently comes with the job of being a surgeon.
MedTech founder Bertin Nahum received quite a bit of fame when he first showed off ROSA in 2012, after he was featured in renowned magazine Discovery Series “The 10 Most Revolutionary Hi-Tech Entrepreneurs” where he was listed in front of Steve Jobs & Bill Gates for his revolutionary robot ROSA.
I spoke last month with Nahum on stage during the French Touch Conference, as well as back stage, as he noted that the US has been & will continue to be the largest single market for MedTech, where they have continued to staff up in order to grow sales. Nevertheless, as their home market, France continues to be an early test-bed for their products, despite the limited market size.
As with ROSA, one of the biggest barriers will be education – the surgeon profession is a largely manual one, and ROSA poses a threat to that way of life, taking the focus off of having a steady hand and putting it onto knowing the best method for performing a procedure. Still, MedTech continues to pave the way for medical device companies in France, who combine France’s advanced healthcare system with their traditional focus on industrial R&D to produce new innovations in the space.