Biomodex 3D Prints Anatomical Body Parts for Surgical Planning and Training

Based in Paris and Boston, French startup company Biomodex is focussed on developing 3D printed surgical simulators for both patient-specific surgical planning and medical education.

Founded by Sidarth Radjou and Thomas Marchand in 2014, the young company develops synthetic organs using 3D printing technology. Based on medical imaging, Biomodex creates and 3D prints organs and other body parts with the same exact shape and properties. This allows for surgeons to plan and perform operations prior to the actual surgery on the patient, including procedures such as bone drilling, soft tissue suturing, medical device implantation and sizing. Moreover, these 3D printed anatomical body parts and organs can also be used to train medical students.

By moving to 3D printing, the team currently sees the main difficulty in reproducing parts with the correct biomechanical qualities of the tissue, such as elasticity, hardness and softness.

Biomodex sees advantages in areas such as logistics, as plastic models are easy to store compared to anatomical parts from cadavers. Additionally, the technology allows for reproducing specific illnesses or problems that surgeons want to practise on, e.g. a specific arm or leg fracture. Thomas Marchand also explained that 3D simulation is often the only method for training for paediatric illnesses as minors are not allowed to donate their bodies to medical science by law.

The startup has recently won the EDF Pulse Award in the category “E-health” and is currently operating in France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Australia and Japan. Following their initial funding round of € 3.2 million in April, Biomodex plans a second round in September 2017.