MRIs are an indispensable tool for surgeons, although the technology certainly has its limitations. Take, for example, surgeons who use machines to guide their procedures. The current process involves placing the patient in a machine to obtain an image, before removing it to advance a needle one centimeter at a time. It’s a time-consuming and frankly inefficient use of resources.
With the motto “Creating a new chapter in minimally invasive surgery”, based in the Bay Area M.D.C. believes that the answer lies in robotics. While robotics undoubtedly represents the future of surgery, it presents its own challenges in this application. After all, traditional robotics contain many elements that cannot function within an MRI.
The company launched on the Startup Battlefield stage at britcommerce Disrupt 2024.
MDC’s challenge, then, was to create a robotic system that could operate on a patient inside an MRI without relying on electric motors, rare earth metals and other elements that would inhibit the imaging machine’s operations.
The young startup’s work is based on research conducted during founder and CEO Sam Frishman’s time at John Hopkins and Stanford. Frishman describes the solution as “high-rigidity, low-friction hydraulic transmissions and actuators.” The system runs on water and is connected to the outside of the MRI via a tube.
“Our system has some differentiators,” Frishman tells britcommerce. “One is the ability to have really deft control directly from the doctor. They are controlling the needle, whether positioning, advancing, actuating, it is as if they have it in their hand.”
The MDC specifically targets biopsies and ablations in its initial offering. The CEO says those minimally invasive procedures are just the beginning.
“It’s really enabling new capabilities that are beyond what’s possible today,” Frishman says. “That’s where digitization, power assistance, guidance through AI, and all the data we collect starts to add up beyond human capabilities, although the doctor still has full control and makes all the decisions.”
MDC recently graduated from SOSV’s HAX accelerator and took the stage today as part of the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt. The company has raised $1.2 million in seed capital.