When medical technology company Arspectra launched in 2018, the company had the aim to develop a novel medical device that could go to market within 10 years. Now, five years later, General Manager Cédric Spaas says this target is still on schedule.
The commercial timeline, however, is strongly dependent on the company’s “regulatory workloads,” Spaas explains. “I wouldn’t want to be operated by my own devices if they weren’t seriously validated on their clinical use.”
Arspectra’s core focus is developing AR glasses, as well as other solutions, for medical applications. And the prospects are exciting: the solutions allow for the visualisation of key data, such as patient information, which can optimise decision-making and result in savings, both in terms of cost and time. Such data has been traditionally screened on monitors—requiring extra mapping work on the part of a surgeon, for instance—not to mention the monitors are large in areas that don’t always have a lot of space to begin with.
“A necessary step”
Using the example of a surgeon removing a malignant tumour, for example, Spaas explains: “The target is the tumour: you want to take out as much as possible of the tumour to avoid recurrence, but you don’t want to take out too much because you still have functional properties. This margin is critical. With augmented reality, you can bring that visual, diagnostic data, in direct sight on the patient, meaning you can see the margin exactly where it is.”
Not only is the surgeon more comfortable, no longer having to look back and forth between a monitor and the work he or she is doing, but time and cost savings are the result. And, ideally, better overall outcomes.
Despite the substantial regulations on MedTech, Spaas doesn’t see them as a burden. “Some see it as a bottleneck because it’s challenging,” he explains. “It’s expensive for startups. But it’s a necessary step.”
Focus on Europe, US
Some of Arspectra’s devices have been able to become commercially available quicker than others, even if “we’re not on the market yet with the most complex devices we are developing.” Adding to the challenges, of course, is also the fact that different markets have different regulatory environments. While the company has a global approach, the primary target markets are Europe and the US.
Spaas sees good potential in Luxembourg’s health sector, and its development over the past five years has “been fascinating”. Arspectra has partnered with several biohealth players in Luxembourg—CHL and LIH, to name a couple—and Spaas says that the ecosystem has been a pleasure to work with. “The will is there. There are a lot of good players pushing it.”
