Ricoh USA and Insight Surgery have forged a partnership aimed at bringing patient-specific surgical guides to the US market, focusing on orthopaedic and maxillofacial surgeries for both paediatric and adult patients.
The initiative seeks to broaden the availability of these surgical tools, enhancing precision in procedures and supporting healthcare systems across the country.
Ricoh USA’s division RICOH 3D for Healthcare, which specialises in 3D printing solutions for the medical sector, will collaborate with Insight Surgery to distribute custom-designed surgical guides.
These guides will cater to a range of orthopedic applications, including osteotomy cases, pelvic surgeries, deformity corrections in the limbs, orthopaedic oncology procedures, and the preparation of allografts.
The partnership also extends to maxillofacial surgeries, such as orthognathic procedures and facial reconstructions, providing guides tailored to each patient’s specific surgical plan.
Insight Surgery’s surgical guides are developed by a team of biomedical engineers and offer various delivery timelines, including an expedited option within 10 working days and a standard option within 10 to 20 working days.
The EmbedMed platform, owned by Insight Surgery, supports the entire process of digital surgical planning and guide production. The software ensures secure handling of patient imaging data, facilitates the design of guides, and manages manufacturing at ISO 13485-certified and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-registered facilities.
The surgical guides are designed to reduce procedure times, enhance accuracy, and decrease complication rates compared to conventional surgical methods. This collaboration is said to align with Ricoh’s strategy to expand its healthcare solutions by incorporating advanced surgical tools that improve planning and support medical training, patient education, and hospital-based initiatives.
Ricoh USA managing director Gary Turner said: “This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to turn patient information into clinical and economic ROI.
“By leveraging Insight Surgery’s expertise and our own robust healthcare network, we are democratising access to cutting-edge, patient-specific technologies, especially in underserved segments like paediatric care. We are setting a new standard for personalised surgery.”
According to Ricoh USA, surgeons and healthcare facilities can access these patient-specific guides by reaching out to local Ricoh Clinical Engineers or Clinical Applications Specialists. The procedure involves acquiring DICOM images securely, conducting digital segmentation, planning the surgery digitally, and reviewing the design with an engineer from Insight Surgery before the guides are manufactured and delivered in a sterilisable format.
Insight Surgery CEO Henry Pinchbeck said: “Ricoh USA’s extensive presence in the healthcare sector, combined with its distribution and clinical application capabilities, makes them an ideal partner for Insight Surgery.
“By integrating our innovative surgical planning and guide solutions with Ricoh’s point-of-care network and enterprise-wide hospital 3D printing programmes, we can offer surgeons reliable, fast, and high-quality devices to enhance patient outcomes.”
Recently, Ricoh USA entered into a partnership with Kallisio to manufacture and distribute Stentra patient-specific oral stents designed to improve radiation therapy for head and neck cancer (HNC) patients.
