PreOp provides an integrated approach to help surgeons during preoperative planning and intraoperative guidance applying virtual reality, augmented reality and 3D printing.

Over the last years, surgery has tackled the following problems:
1) Medico-legal issues are becoming prominent and litigations are steeply on the increase; as a consequence, professional risk insurance is also on the increase (e.g. insurance costs for gynecologists raised over 20,000 euros per year);
2) Budget cuts significantly affect the healthcare system;
3) Due to the new European working time directives, postgraduate surgical residencies are forced to drastically reduce the effective training hours;
4) Patients refuse the ineludible concepts of surgical mortality and morbidity, and even the post-operative changes in quality of life inevitably linked to some surgical procedures (e.g. resective G.I. surgery); as a consequence, there is increased demand of precise and less invasive surgery, technically more difficult.

In this context, PreOp delivers a service of image analysis which realizes patient-specific 3D virtual models from cross-sectional radiological imaging, like CT scans and MRI. The 3D reconstructions can be visualized either in a non-immersive way or in a virtual reality (VR) environment based on the new head-mounted displays. Moreover, the virtual models can be integrated in the eye field through augmented reality (AR) devices, like glasses or mobile phones, and transferred from the virtual world into reality thanks to the 3D printing (3DP) technologies.

In relation to our competitors, we believe that no approach has so far raised above all others, and all technologies (VR, AR, 3DP) may be employed in an integrated manner to offer the most appropriate solution depending on the clinical case, the experience of the clinicians and the resources of the department of surgery. This vision originates from our firsthand experiences on the ground, in many departments of different surgical specialties, with several surgeons. We are proud that a top-level expert recently praised our activity as “a great mix of pragmatism and forward-thinking”.

Our customers are departments of surgery, no difference in specialties, dealing with complex surgical procedures, which require a patient-tailored approach to anticipate surgical gestures, prevent potential complications and reduce related costs. We are organizing courses and workshops to teach clinicians to adopt, use and integrate our products. The target audience includes both trainees and expert surgeons from all specialties, radiologists, radiology technicians, bioengineers, and also medical students, as they are the future users. We are building an imaging library of our clinical cases, a significant resource to sell to companies interested in developing atlas-based softwares for image analysis and conducting statistics regarding big data to find correlation between pathologies and radiological images.

In the next year, we aim to become the reference point of solutions for image-guided surgery in the metropolitan area of Milan. Our large experience makes us ready to enter the market and start our activity, both service and consulting, within 3 months after an initial investment. We estimate the following needs: € 74,000 for professional hardware; € 28,000 for consultation fees (e.g. surgeons, radiologists, programmers, bioengineers, lawyers); € 24,000 for one-year research fellowship (evaluation of clinical outcomes; validation of developed solutions; publication of scientific papers); € 24.000 for one-year position as professional programmer (professional assistance to increase the automation of our workflow).

Management Team
PreOp is managed by a multidisciplinary team which integrates a wide medical know-how ranging from radiology to surgery, with a deep bioengineering background, encompassing image analysis and VR/AR devices. The team as a whole has a deep experience and masters the application of these technologies throughout all phases, from the proper acquisition of radiological images to the integration of 3D virtual models in the operating room.
PreOp relies also on a prestigious advisory board which includes international world-renowned experts In the field of surgery, medical education, radiological image analysis and surgical innovation.