Matt Parkes handles a bleach-white model of a skull, held together by what looks like steel plates fastened around its eye socket.
It is a model of a skull rebuilt after a massive car crash. Parkes, the technical manager at Adeiss, London’s newest medical devices company, credits the plates with enabling the rebuilding of the face and the life of the person to whom it belongs.
Now, that technology is available in London. Adeiss will be unveiled at a news conference today as a new business that will provide 3D printing solutions to the health-care sector, including surgeons who need a plate for a skull fracture.
“The vision is that someone takes a view of a knee, or a hip or a cranial plate, ships it to us and we make it and ship it overnight for installation the next day. That is the vision,” said Paul Paolatto, chief executive of Adeiss, located at the National Research Council office on Collip Circle.
“This is the first time London has stepped forward and said, ‘Now we are aggressively commercializing to create products for sale in the medical marketplace.’”
Adeiss is the result of a partnership between Western University, the London Medical Network and Renishaw, a business from the United Kingdom.
The 3D machines are fed either titanium or cobalt chrome powder, depending on what is being made. Titanium is better for body parts, such as joints and hips, and cobalt chrome for dental work.
“It is great for the patients. We provide additional structure for the bone,” Parkes said.
“A lot of different groups are interested in this technology. It offers very good integration, the bone will grow into the titanium structure to provide stability.”
Surgeons now bend plates to make them fit.
Adeiss will enhance London’s reputation as a health-care leader, said David Holdsworth, science officer with the company.
“It is very exciting this is happening in London. It is state of the art. It is the way things are going. We will hear a lot more about techniques like this,” he said.
“It is a great solution. The biggest potential is catalysing new development and innovation. It will mean less time spent in surgery.”
Adeiss is the first business to grow from London’s Medical Innovation and Commercialization Network, a $10-million city fund to develop and commercialize health care businesses.
Adeiss received $1.5 million from the fund. Western University also pitched in $1 million and another $1.5 million in in-kind support. Renishaw is investing $3 million in in-kind support, including staffing here for 18 months, making Adeiss a $7-million investment.
Adeiss will start with about five workers.
“We hope it germinates into something much more robust,” Paolatto said.
It will take nine months to a year for Adeiss to get federal approval to manufacture for human surgical work, but it will pay the bills, until that happens, doing veterinary work, he said.
Source: London Free Press
