Team History

Early conceptual work was performed in the healthcare domain. The world’s first orthopaedic training simulator, laparoscopic key surgical assessment tools, a neurological stroke diagnosis tool and training tools for beating heart surgery began its journey. This is where our story begins; Mr Stefan Hallin, Chairman of the board and Jens Larsson, Product Manager met for the first time.

Mr Hallin and Mr Larsson a few amongst others founded Mentice and took one step towards what today is a leading medical simulation company.

Mentice is the leading developer and supplier of virtual reality based simulation systems, with close to 600 installations worldwide and over 100 validation studies. Mentice provides complete turnkey solutions such as the Mentice VIST® and the Mentice VIST®-C from entry-skills acquisition to high-fidelity procedural training. Mentice focuses on the areas of endovascular intervention and minimally invasive surgery. Mentice is a global company with offices in the U.S., Sweden (HQ), Germany, Japan, and China.

The first product launched in 1999 and was the Virtual Arthroscopy Shoulder — which quickly was installed at European and U.S. centers thought KOI leaders (such as Dr. Gerber, Balgrist and Dr. Snyder, SCOI).

Procedicus MIST ™ the second product produced by Mentice was developed in 2000 and is up until today the most validated medical simulator in the world and was validated by prominent research teams i.e; Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Imperial College and Karolinska University Hospital.

Mentice advanced even further when launching the world’s first physics-based haptic simulator in 2001 and building bridges with Hospitals (Huddinge University Hospital), installing the first commercial multinational simulation training centre in Brussels, 2001(Guidant Europe Cardiovascular Institute which trained over 7500 physicians in 2 years).

First study ever linked to simulation improving clinical outcome was published.

Prof Lars Lönn with his extensive education and research and with honourable memberships at various Societies such as CIRSE, ESVS, EACTS Vascular Domain, Board Member at Task force for Education and Simulation in Europe for IR, VS; and CVS (Cardiovascular Surgeons), Editorial board of; JEVT, J.Cardiovascular Surgery, Imaging Management and President of Seldinger Vascular and Interventional Society brought further clinical depth to the company. Prof Lars Lönn began to do scientific research on the endovascular simulator VIST ™ produced by Mentice and the outcome became a high fidelity endovascular simulator enabling hands-on procedural training for clinicians and medical professionals. During the period up to 2009 over 200 validation studies was published establishing a clear scientific link between training and outcome and the usefulness of simulations.

In 2004 Mentice pioneered with procedure rehearsal. Mentice together with ERASMUS Medical Center, Guidant Corporation and Paris Course on Revascularization (EuroPCR) rehearsed a Carotid Stenting Procedure on a virtual-reality simulator before the actual procedure was performed on a patient. The demonstration was first of its kind and demonstrated that prediction of medical outcome can be made.

Mentice took a further step out into the world and travelled cross the Atlantic Ocean and performed a live Carotid Procedure Rehearsal immediately followed by the live procedure together with Dr Cates, Emory University Hospital at the TCT 2005.

A new milestone in 2005 spread even more light on Mentice, through the acquisition of Xitact SA (Switzerland) this in order to continue the acceleration of developing medical simulation. Xitact at that time was the world leader in reliable haptic technologies for medical simulation, whereas Mentice was the leader on the application side – together they could now provide even more user friendly and innovative products.

The team came in contact with Mr. Peter Albinsson through the acquisition of Xitact SA and he is currently the representative of Orzone in the Middle East. With his valuable experience within healthcare infrastructure in the Middle East, including positions as strategic advisor for private sector companies, investors and government sponsored funds and with various positions at EFG International (part of EFG Group, Switzerland’s third largest banking group), he then became an advisor to the Board and is today the Chairman of the Board at Mentice.

A complex and first ever Neurointerventional Procedure Rehearsal was performed by Dr Civan Islak in collaboration with Cordis Cardiovascular Institute (CCVI Hamburg).

A few individuals decided it was time to once again break new grounds. Mrs Apell, Mr Hallin, Mr Pedersen (today at Mentice), Mr Larsson and Professor Lönn founded Orzone. A unique team was put together and Mrs. Apell was chosen as CEO to run the committed team towards the improvement of healthcare quality by developing creative solutions based on e-health and advanced simulation technology.

Orzone and team members have joined the torchlight procession with the united passion for the development in healthcare. The vision became clear; a vision zero within healthcare where the aspiration is that no single patient shall be harmed due to medical error.

Orzone quickly touched new grounds by developing a tool for team training. Orcamp is a unique comprehensive training environment which can be used for harmonizing assessment of knowledge, skills and behaviours. The framework supports standard hospital processes through computer based tools for training and planning.

Orcamp was first shown to the crowd at EuroPCR in Paris may 2010.
Based on a curriculum developed in partnership with Prof. Jean Marco/EuroPCR and Dr. John Edmond/Bristol Heart Institute, participating Cardiologists and nurses were given the opportunity to practice an Acute Coronary Syndrome case.

Orcamp travelled the same year to Valencia and for the second time partake as a training tool for delegates at CIRSE.  This time educational sessions were based on a curriculum developed in partnership with Prof. Jon Moss (Glasgow/UK) CIRSE faculty and participating radiologists and vascular surgeons were given the opportunity to practice uterine artery embolisation (UAE).

The collaboration between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London (formed earlier the same year) and Orzone reached an important milestone in July 2010, when the team training operating room Orcamp was installed at Imperial College’s St. Mary’s Campus. Following the renovation of a complete floor in the clinical skills centre at St. Mary’s, the world’s first Orcamp installation now enabled a multitude of research and training possibilities to Imperial College, never done before.

"A web-based framework for assessment and harmonization of training and education."

Orzone believes that Vision Zero only can be reach by improving individuals, there should be a systematic approach that facilitates for medical professionals to continuously build competency and proficiency. Orzone began at an early stage to build is a web-based framework for assessment and harmonization of training and education. The electronic platform Ortrac enables to log and track progression (knowledge, skills and professionalism) of each trainee or specialist. A collaboration between Orzone and the UEMS came together on grounds for the development and the implementation.

"A structured technical tool for extending learning and exercises from single to team user."

The essence with team training is that the team not only familiars with each other (as teams come to vary), but with their individual position and tasks to form the required team. Orzone decided to facilitate this with the help of a systematic training tool. Orsync is a step-by-step tool for individual team members that can be used for training on various scenarios, where realistic sequences of events can be planned, trained on and documented from both simulated to realistic data.

Orzone announces Mr. Stefan Hallin appointed as their new Chief executive officer (CEO). Mr Hallin has served as Chairman of Orzone since the company was founded in 2007 and says:

Orzone has many great talents who have worked for many years in medical training and simulation. The team have for the last couple of years developed a suite of tools and capabilities that will contribute to increasing the appreciation of medical training through its unique features. The company will in the next 90 days launch three product lines that is the result of close to ten Million USD in development activities. These tools will increase the level of realism in training and also broaden the scope to team training. In the area on e-learning we will also launch our products for training and assessment.
 

The pilot examination is the second test completed after the first ever Pan-European online examination conducted earlier this year. The aim of the tests is to validate both the educational content from participating Medical Specialties and the technical platform developed by Orzone.
The first Pan-European online examination was performed on February 4th, 2011 in collaboration with UEMS and Joint Committee of Intensive Care (UEMS-IC) based on the UEMS-Intensive care curriculum.

The online examination was performed in 10 countries by more than 130 candidates from Belgium, England, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey.

First ever global simultaneous online pilot examination was performed in 2011 which including several countries in different time zones.

Previously it has not been possible to train the whole team simultaneously on complex procedures in a fully realistic simulated environment. Orzone announces novel functionalities in the modular surgical/interventional operating theatre (Orcamp), enabling the integration of various simulators for multidisciplinary team based training.

Today's complex procedures require in many cases collaboration between the anaesthesiologist and the operator, such as in trauma situations. Previously it has not been possible to train the whole team simultaneously on these complex procedures without using actors or scripts at least for part of the training need (e.g. training focus has realistically focused on either the anaesthesiology elements or the surgical/intervention component). In addition there has been a lack of structured tools for briefing and debriefing for team scenarios that evolve these complex procedures.

Orzone participated at CIRSE in Munich 2011 where multidisciplinary simulated team training was conducted by the use of Orcamp, equipped with two leading simulators; VIST®-C and SimMan® 3G.
With the VIST®-C (high-fidelity procedural VR simulator) and the SimMan® 3G (a realistic, adult full-body patient simulator) the OR team training could involve complex training components for all team members enabling multidisciplinary team based training.

The novel functionality means that the complex procedures can be synchronized through a set of innovative tools giving the operator and the anaesthesiologist the possibility to interact whilst each of them running highly realistic simulations for their area of expertise.