‘Once you cut the bone, you can’t uncut’ | Provision Surgical brings AR precision to knee replacements
Surgeons perform roughly 670,000 to 700,000 knee replacements every year. About 40% of them end with some kind of misalignment.
These numbers come straight from Provision Surgical‘s CEO, Abdullah Bahour. And while being just 1 millimeter off doesn’t necessarily mean a revision surgery, it can mean more time in the operating room and a longer, more uncomfortable recovery. This has a ripple effect on the patient, the surgeon and the industry.
But Provision Surgical offers a new king of surgical experience, specifically for knee replacements as their beachhead market. Their technology transforms 2D medical imaging into real-time 3D vision with 99% accuracy.
Bahour recently pitched the startup at LaunchTN’s 3686 Fest, where the company took home the Audience Choice Award.
Precision in every procedure
Most orthopedic surgeries rely on physical markers, which Bahour compares to QR codes. Surgeons physically drill these markers into the bone, and the “QR code” then projects imaging onto the patient to guide surgery. The issue is that surgeons are human, and all drill a little differently.
“If you misalign that drill at the wrong depth or a different angle, all your alignments are out of place,” Bahour said. “Plus, why physically drill into a bone if it can be done virtually?”
Instead, Provision Surgical is training its AI to use computer vision to assist.
Before surgery, CT scans, MRIs and X-rays are uploaded into Provision Surgical’s system, where its AI processes the information into a preoperative plan. A case engineer and the surgeon review the plan and make any necessary changes. In the operating room, the surgeon puts on their AR glasses, logs in and selects the plan. The glasses project the plan for the procedure onto the patient without any drilling, showing where to cut, at what angle and how deep.
“The surgeons are flying the plane. They’re the pilot,” Bahour said. “At the end of the day, they decide how to land. We’re just a tool to help them get there like autopilot. But that’s important. Once you cut the bone, you can’t uncut it.”
Building in Tennessee’s health hub
Bahour, a Nashville native, earned his degree from the University of Memphis, and has been committed to developing advanced orthopedic technologies ever since. The company is now participating in Memphis’s Epicenter medtech cohort and is raising a $1.5 million seed round to pursue FDA approval, with a letter of pilot interest from MedStar Georgetown in hand.
Bahour is looking for a lead investor who brings more than a check, ideally someone with connections to hospitals, academic institutions for pilot programs and the insurance world. Having this investor be local would be the cherry on top to allow for a speedier process.
“I’ve lived across the US. I’ve lived in Chicago and in California, and out of the country. Nashville is our home,” said Bahour. “We don’t have to move to San Francisco. We don’t have to move to New York to build this organization. We can build it here in our backyard and we can do it at a fraction of the cost.”
Follow Provision Surgical on LinkedIn.
Like what you've read?
Forward to a friend!