Navigate Surgical took home the BCIC Second Prize in the 2012 competition. They’ve since grown into a 35-person business, focused on commercialization readiness for going to market across North America and in Europe.
Navigate Surgical’s Inliant Clinical Dental Navigation System provides visual, real-time, and accurate guidance for dental implant surgery. Since being approved by Health Canada last year, it has been used in over 60 surgeries.
Founder Udi Daon comments, “Customer feedback is an essential part of this go to market strategy—we can see how the product performs under different situations. When we go to mass markets, we will have a more robust product that’s easier to produce and install. It makes a big difference in the medical space, between creating something that works and something that works well for anybody.”
Proudest moments are seeing patients smile
When asked about his proudest moments, Udi mentions that, beyond the success of his company, it’s all about patient satisfaction and turning around past negative experiences.
“We recently helped a patient who previously had an unsuccessful implant surgery. He didn’t want to go through another one, but after the procedure was performed with our system—which took a lot less time, and with significantly less discomfort—his outcome was very positive,“ he says.
“We’re creating the ability to perform an accurate, predictable surgery, where the patient walks away smiling. These are my proudest moments—everything else is leading up to that or a result of it. This is why we do it.”
Improved ergonomics drive clinicians’ satisfaction
In addition to patient satisfaction, the product is a proven clinical success. “Clinicians have seen faster procedures with higher accuracy and predictability dimensions. We’ve also been receiving feedback at trade shows and conferences regarding our ergonomic approach—we’ve managed to improve navigation without adding more layers to the surgical arena.”
Strengths of the seminar series
Reflecting back to the BCIC-New Ventures Competition, Udi comments on how beneficial the seminar series was for his company. “It was a great environment to be in—with events, speakers and lectures. The topics and presentations were invaluable to everyone, whether they were advanced or not.”
“The fact that we got as far as we did demonstrated the strength of our focus, resolve, and preparedness, but the general benefit of attending the presentations was tremendous,” he says.
Udi continues, “The competition was amazing. Only 10 got to the final round—so what happens to the other 140 on the way—are they gaining no value? I don’t think so; I think they can get tremendous value.”
“Being rejected is only one aspect—it’s what you take away from those lectures, and I personally took a lot.”
Given Udi’s perspective, his advice to future participants is not surprising.
“Attend all of the events. If you focus on the competition, you miss the out on the journey—and it’s the journey that will determine the outcome. That’s what I would tell them.”
About Navigate Surgical
Navigate Surgical Technologies Inc. is developing the world’s most innovative motion tracking and 3D visualization technology. Our first products, the Inliant Clinical™ Dental Navigation System, is targeted at the dental market in the areas of Dynamic Surgical Guidance for implant surgery.
Inliant Dental Technologies Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Navigate Surgical Technologies Inc.
