Ricoh and Insight Surgery Partner to Make 3D Printed Surgical Guides

On October 17th, Ricoh announced its partnership with Insight Surgery to provide patient-specific surgical guides for orthopedic and maxillofacial surgeries. These innovative, 3D printed surgical guides will help surgeons with precision by translating a bespoke virtual surgical plan directly onto a patient. Ricoh 3D for Healthcare, the division of Ricoh known for its custom medical device design, will distribute Insight Surgery’s guides. The collaboration should provide broader access to these advanced surgical tools, enhancing surgeons’ accuracy and increasing value in healthcare across the United States. 

Surgical guides, like the ones created for this partnership, are proven to reduce surgery times, improve accuracy, and minimize complications, offering a significant advancement over traditional methods. What’s more, the guides reduce recovery time for patients due to increased accuracy, as well as reduce or eliminate the need for a patient to return for further surgical procedures. Insight Surgery’s surgical guides are tailored for various applications in orthopedic surgery, including pediatric and adult osteotomy cases, pelvic surgeries, deformity corrections of the upper and lower limbs, orthopedic oncology, and the sourcing and shaping of allografts. The guides are also used in oral and maxillofacial surgeries, meaning the face, neck, sinuses and jaws.

Examples of surgical guides from Insight Surgery (Photo credits: Insight Surgery)

Insight Surgery’s surgical guides are fabricated quickly by a team of biomedical engineers, and delivered within ten working days for the expedited service, and ten to twenty working days for the standard service. Additionally, the team is aided by Insight Surgery’s proprietary software solution, EmbedMed. EmbedMed integrates digital surgical planning and guide production, facilitating the secure transfer of patient imaging data, supporting the design process, and ensuring precise manufacturing of surgical guides in ISO 13485-certified, FDA-registered facilities.

Insight Surgery’s specialty is personalized surgical planning and surgical guide production, so Ricoh is enthusiastic about the collaboration. Gary Turner, Managing Director, Ricoh USA, Inc., 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 democratizing access to cutting-edge, patient-specific technologies, especially in underserved segments like pediatric care. We are setting a new standard for personalized surgery.”

Further examples of surgical guides (Photo credits: Insight Surgery)

It helps that Ricoh 3D for Healthcare has a history of delivering personalized healthcare treatments. Just this spring, the company partnered with SimBioSys to create AI-powered 3D models for personalized breast cancer treatment. Henry Pinchbeck, CEO of Insight Surgery, expressed his eagerness to work with such an established company. “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,” Pinchbeck said. “By integrating our innovative surgical planning and guide solutions with Ricoh’s point-of-care network and enterprise-wide hospital 3D printing programs, we can offer surgeons reliable, fast, and high-quality devices to enhance patient outcomes. This partnership propels our shared vision of making personalized surgery available to every surgeon in the nation.”

Surgeons and healthcare facilities interested in using these patient-specific surgical guides can initiate requests by contacting their local Clinical Applications Specialist or onsite Ricoh Clinical Engineers where applicable. To learn more, read Ricoh’s announcement here.

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*Cover Photo Credits: Ricoh