Team History
It is with great joy we can present the Orzone team history.
As our globe spins around, new events gather people and new opportunities occur.
We have all come from various parts of the world, with diverse experience but yet a blazed interest in healthcare. It is amazing when people choose one path, crossing somebody else’s and at the beginning of that trail, join hands and follow one path together to the future.
Some people at Orzone began their career in advanced training back in the 80s in military, automotive and aerospace applications. In 1994 some of them including Orzone’s Chairman of the Board; Mr Stefan Hallin, Jan Grund Pedersen (VP Business Development) and Jens Larsson (Product Manager) met for the first time. Although the main work was still focused on military and automotive applications, early conceptual work was performed in the healthcare domain. Such work included the world’s first orthopaedic training simulator, laparoscopic key surgical assessment tools and a neurological stroke diagnosis tool and training tools for beating heart surgery.
In 1999 Mr Hallin, Mr Pedersen and Mr Larsson founded Mentice and took one step towards what today is a leading medical simulation company Mentice. The first product launched in 1999, was the Virtual Arhroscopy Shoulder — which quickly was installed at European and U.S. thought leaders (Dr. Gerber, Balgrist and Dr. Snyder, SCOI).
At the inception in 1999 the company recruited Mr Fredrik Ohlson as a CTO with valuable experience from training in military applications. He introduced advanced technology gained from the defence industry. With Mentice advancing, 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) and publishing the first study linking simulation to improved clinical outcome in 2002 the technical and scientific foundation was there for a broader launch of advanced simulation and training tools.
At this time Mentice had increased its workforce and selectively chosen Mrs. Petra Apell from Johnson & Johnson, one of the leading life science companies in the world, to join the team. Mrs. Apell with her broad business experience in bioscience, neurology, gastroenterology and web technology developing the first-ever European web platform for patients and healthcare professionals, became the EMEA Marketing and Sales Manager at Mentice. Mrs. Apell started to build a clinical network including collaboration with, professional and scientific societies, the internationally renowned medical skills center Imperial College, NHS Radiology Academies (R-ITI) and committed physicians including Prof. Lars Lönn (today Clinical Director at Orzone). Prof Lars Lönn began to do scientific research on the endovascular simulator VIST ™. 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.
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.
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.
Mr. Jan Grund- Pedersen by this time crossed the Atlantic Ocean and became responsible for Mentice Inc (US) and expansion arose in the hospital market. Mr Pedersen- Grund developed a live Carotid Procedure Rehearsal immediately followed by the live procedure together with Dr Cates, Emory University Hospital at the TCT 2005.
In 2005 a new milestone 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 (today Orzone representative in 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 became an advisor to the Board.
The year of 2007 was a year of great happenings. A complex Neurointerventional Procedure Rehearsal was performed by Dr Civan Islak in collaboration with Cordis Cardiovascular Institute (CCVI Hamburg). The same year a few individuals decided it was time to once again to break new ground. Mrs Apell, Mr Hallin, Mr Pedersen, 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. And as we say; Orzone was born. Up until today, as you are reading our story, experienced individuals have joined our torchlight procession with the united passion for the development of healthcare and of course; the Vision Zero.
