Video Transcription
Claartje Ypma 00:02
Good afternoon. My name is Claartje Ypma. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Augmedit, and I'm excited to present to you the future of surgery and demonstrate how we unlock insights beyond imagination using augmented reality. When a person is being prepped for surgery, most they can think of is what can go wrong. And unfortunately, there's still a lot that can go wrong, because surgeons rely heavily on 2D imaging technology, and they must mentally translate this data to 3D to accurately plan and perform surgery. This is difficult, inefficient, and provides room for error. Here you see how, based on the scan, a neurosurgeon places a drain in the ventricles of a patient. Due to the lack of good visual tools, it was misplaced and had to be corrected. And this happens in 20% of adult patients and 40% of pediatric patients, and there's only one example of a preventable error that can be averted with the correct visual tools. And augmented reality is such a visual tool. At Augmedit, we develop AR software for surgical preparation, patient education, and intraoperative guidance to improve surgical outcomes and reduce costs for medical institutions. There is a massive market potential for augmented reality in the surgical space, which is projected to reach 18 billion by 2030. The neurosurgical space is the largest growing segment, and our beachhead strategy focuses on impactful indications within neurosurgery, and after that, we will expand our product portfolio to maxillofacial surgery, orthopedic surgery, and oncology surgery. We currently have our first product on the European market, and just last week, we received FDA clearance for this software. So that was a great milestone. Here you see how it is being used. A 2D scan is uploaded in our cloud environment, and then using one or more of our dedicated AI algorithms, relevant anatomical structures are automatically segmented. Here you see, for example, in green, the tumor, and in blue, the red blood vessels. Once the hologram has been generated, it can be made visible through the AR glasses, and then the surgeon can really see what they want to see to prepare for surgery, also looking at the original DICOM images as well. Currently, it is often being used to decide how to position a patient on the OR table or where to make the opening in the skull. Those generated holograms can be shared with multiple users, both locally and remotely. So this is a great feature to discuss within the surgical team. A specific approach, shared decision-making between doctor and patient, is becoming more and more important. The satisfaction rate of a patient drastically improves if he or she is well-informed and will appreciate that a hologram is much easier to understand than a 2D black-and-white scan. So by generating a secure QR code, the surgeon can provide it to the patient so they can open their own hologram on their mobile phone, and to quote this patient here on the right, it really helped her reduce her sense of helplessness by visually understanding her pathology through these holograms. We really found it augmented to make an impact in the operating theater. I just showed you an example of a drain that was misplaced using a 2D scan. Our first intraoperative product will be for the guidance for the placement of such drains. In the generated hologram, a simple guideline is being placed in the optimum position of the ventricle, and then the hologram is being matched with great precision on the patient's head, so the surgeon is being guided for the optimal placement of such a drain. We just finished a multicenter phantom study, and results indeed show that our software is superior to the freehand placement of those drains. We expect to receive approval by the end of the year, and this month, we are starting a first human trial. Our software has been a real game changer in the neurosurgical space. Over 500 surgeries have been planned using our software, and our 13 peer-reviewed field publications have really shown remarkable benefits, such as shorter preparation time, shorter surgery time, smaller skin incisions, and even surgical modifications. We work with a simple sales business model to generate volume in multiple markets. The pricing is steered based on a number of features, and we are currently conducting a health technology assessment to validate the pricing, especially for the US market. Now let me walk you through a simple business case. A medium-sized US center typically places 300 drains a year. Without our software, they face at least 17 revisions that are needed because of misplacement and 36 hemorrhages, which lead to a cost of approximately $440,000 a year. With our software, the revisions needed are reduced to only two. So this has a massive impact in terms of cost and in terms of complications, and the financial impact is clear. The department can save over $200,000 per year, and that leads to a return on investment of our software within a few months. Our go-to-market strategy is centered around key strategic partnerships with key centers in Europe and in the US. We are generating recurring revenue from top centers in Europe, and we just signed the first contracts with Barrow, which is the largest neurosurgical center in the world, and just last night, the chairman of Lenox Hill tried our software for the first time, planning a surgery. Also, we are now exploring initial collaborations with industry partners. So this whole approach is a solid foundation to grow scale globally. Within the competitive landscape, Augmedit clearly stands out. We are the only company that provides a cloud-only platform where no capital equipment needs to be installed in the hospitals, and where AI algorithms automatically segment anatomical structures. So this is a great basis to expand our product portfolio and scale. Our team is our greatest asset. My co-founder, Tim Murawski, is a neurosurgeon with whom I have collaborated for over 7 years. Tim is a pioneer in the field of AR and drives our innovative edge. We have a very complementary team with deep industry ties and international expertise, and we are on a clear path to substantial growth. Key milestones include FDA clearance for surgical planning, which we just got last week. The next milestone is CE approval for intraoperative products that we expect later this year, and our financial projections are based on a robust recurring revenue model and multiple regulatory approvals unlocking new markets. So in order to reach these milestones, we are currently raising a round of $7 million to do a full commercial rollout of our beachhead products, to expand our product portfolio, and to scale up our operations, also in the US. Following our ERC accelerator grants, they have indicated to co-invest up to 50% in this round, and now we are looking for additional investors. So if anybody is interested, I really look forward to talking further this week or later on. If you're interested in opening your own QR hologram on your phone, you can scan this QR code and use this pin, and then it will open. It may take a while because the Wi-Fi is not very good here, but it should load a hologram. Thank you very much.
