Luxembourg medtech MDsim plans to open a US office in 2024, just over a year after launching its activities in Luxembourg.
Founded by three brothers and incorporated in Luxembourg during the Fit 4 Start incubator programme, MDsim uses computer modelling and simulation to create a digital twin, assisting surgeons in determining the best approach for corrective spine fusion surgery on individual patients.
“Normally, surgeons look at medical imaging,” MDSim co-founder and CEO Roger Assaker told Silicon, adding that based on their experience, they know roughly where to place screws and rods.
MDsim’s software and patient digital twin, allows the surgeon to try different strategies pre-surgery for distributing the load more effectively, based on the various biomechanical forces that a spine undergoes.
“This will give better patient outcome, lowers the risk of complication, shortens the surgery and lowers the cost of the treatment,” says Assaker.
The software, which is still five years away from being in the hands of surgeons, has huge potential for scoliosis patients, a spine curvature that is thought to affect around 3% of adults in the US.
MDsim draws on Assaker’s computer modelling and simulation expertise, which he used in his previous successful business ventures.
“I wanted to work on a project which is important, on a technology that I know, on a problem which is very difficult to solve on a completely innovative topic,” he said.
The idea for the project grew out of a conversation with his older brother, Richard, a spine professor of neurosurgery and spine surgeon in France. They are joined by middle brother Danny, who has a decade of experience in quality regulation, which the team will use to take the device to market.
MD recently graduated from the thirteenth edition of the Fit 4 Start incubation programme and it was among the ten finalists who pitched at the Luxembourg regional Startup World Cup Finals.
Currently a team of nine, MDsim is raising €950,000 to develop the software and build partnerships. It expects to spend three years on product development and two years on clinical validation and regulatory approval.
In the short-term, it expects to offer innovation services to generate revenues from 2024 onwards.
“I have two medical doctors and my medical advisory board from the US and I hope to establish a presence in the US as early as next year,” said Assaker.
