Nebraska medical startup Virtual Incision Corp. completed an $18 million series B round of financing, Silicon Prairie News reports. Virtual Incision developed a surgical robot for colon resection, and the funds will go to manufacturing and clinical trials leading to FDA approval.
Here is what you need to know:
1. Professor of engineering Shane Farritor, PhD, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Dmitry Oleynikov, MD, chief of minimally invasive surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha founded Virtual Incision in 2006.
2. The company raised $2 million in series A financing in 2010 and $11.2 million in 2015. Initial financing allowed the company to successfully complete a feasibility trial and in-human testing outside the country.
3. Traditional colon resection surgery requires an eight-inch incision through abdominal muscles. The Virtual Incision robot only requires a small incision in the patient's umbilical region, which can significantly reduce post-surgery hospital days and associated costs. "A typical hospital stay for traditional colon surgery is 10 days," Dr. Farritor said. "This can cut it to four days."
4. The Virtual Incision robot has an advantage over larger robots with its greater mobility and smaller weight. "We always point out that we have a two-pound robot while everyone else has two-ton robots," Dr. Farritor said. "We think it simplifies the ease of setup, work flow and complexity."
5. Virtual Incision has teams and partners both locally and worldwide.
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