Simulation spinout acquired by medical training company
University of Edinburgh spinout eoSurgical has announced it has been acquired by Limbs & Things – a UK-based company that manufactures medical task trainers and simulators.
EoSurgical, spun out of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine in 2012, builds and designs innovative hardware and instrument tracking software for training surgeons in keyhole surgery.
Co-founders Drs Paul Brennan and Mark Hughes are consultant neurosurgeons at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences on Edinburgh BioQuarter, and co-founder Roland Partridge is a consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
Within the agreement, eoSurgical’s staff will join the Limbs & Things team and continue to help develop products from the company’s Edinburgh base.
Dr Brennan said:
” Limbs & Things are internationally recognised as one of the leading players in medical task trainers, so it is a fantastic opportunity for us to become part of their team and add to their product portfolio with our portable devices and innovative software portfolio.
” Roland, Mark and I have built up eoSurgical over many years with the support of the University of Edinburgh and its commercialisation service, Edinburgh Innovations.
” We’re excited by the potential that this next chapter offers both of our businesses and the marketplace. ”
Andrea Young, head of Old College Capital, the University’s in-house venture investment team, part of Edinburgh Innovations, who have been a supportive shareholder in eoSurgical, said:
” This is a fantastic example of the University’s and wider entrepreneurial ecosystem working to nurture our world-leading academics and get their ideas working for a better world.
” We look forward to following their success in the future. ”
Nick Hull, managing director, Limbs & Things, said:
” The market for laparoscopic simulation training is buoyant and continuing to grow. We are already the proud partners of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons in the supply of simulation trainers for their Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery programme.
” We are keen to invest further into this market space, which means that we can offer an even more accessible training experience with greater ability for self-directed training. It adds a further dimension to our current training range and ultimately helps to make patient outcomes safer and more reliable. ”
