Q&A with Touch Surgical’s Jean Nehme
Scott: What was the original impetus for starting Touch Surgery and how did you two (Dr. Nehme and Dr. Chow) come together to start the company?
Dr. Nehme: Myself and Andre started Touch Surgery because we felt there was a need to support training with accessible technological platforms. As trainee surgeons we both experienced first hand the steep learning curve of learning surgical procedures. As surgeon residents we felt a significant part of the learning curve was an understanding of the cognitive steps of a surgical procedure. To address this we focused on mapping surgical procedures and combining this is a virtual reality user interface — enabling users to practise the steps on any mobile device.
Scott: What aspects of your backgrounds as surgeons helped you drive adoption among providers (a group is notoriously difficult to drive adoption in)? And more generally, how have you gone about driving adoption?
Dr. Nehme: Developing a tool that was designed for us as the “end user” — helped. We were essentially trying to solve our own problem in acquiring surgical expertise.
Scott: I find the intersection of industry and providers to be fascinating, how have you balanced the needs of both parties and showed value to each?
Dr. Nehme: We focus on the end user.
Scott: You’ve grown a pretty extensive team both in the United States and in the UK, can you talk a bit on the challenges of managing such a large, international team? And how you went about growing the team?
Dr. Nehme: Managing teams is something we are learning and continue to find difficult. What we have learnt is to hire slowly and ensure individuals that join fit both culturally but also want to be a part of the mission / vision. Communication and overcommunication is what we are currently focusing on to ensure we continue to drive a strong international team.
Scott: If you could go back and give one piece of advice to yourselves as you were starting Touch Surgery, what would it be?
Be prepared for a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs.
Scott: Where do you see the future of medical education (and in particular training physicians on innovative technologies)?
Dr. Nehme: We are excited about VR in the future of medical education.
Scott: Beyond medical education, what technologies are you most excited about in terms of their impact on health care? Are there any particular companies you’re excited about?
Dr. Nehme: Robotics is an interesting field today. We are both excited about companies such as Auris Robotics and Google Deep Mind.
