Group for Innovative Diagnostic and Therapeutic DeviceDivision of Surgical Technology (kashiwa)

The main purpose of the Division of Surgical Technology is to develop surgical devices that is truly necessary, to deliver them to the clinical fields, and to prove this efficacy and safety through clinical trials.
The three main elements of our innovation are creating devices reflecting true needs in the medical field, practicing with the devices in clinical trials and connecting our innovations to a wider world.
Based on a collaboration between clinical surgeons and engineer in the innovating group “NEXT conference” (in 2016), the NEXT (Center for of New Surgical and Endoscopic Development for Exploratory Technology) was founded this year. By cooperation with the NEXT, we started promoting the surgical device development consisting of clinical need selection, prototype design, POC (Proof of Concept) establishment, validation, and clinical trials.
Now we are going to establish a clinical supportive team for early-phase surgical device innovation and aim to make a road-map in surgical device innovation.

Research background

As medical devices that improve clinical and economic outcomes, solutions are sought that lead to (1) improved cancer prognosis, (2) greater operational efficiency in clinical settings, (3) reduction of treatment related complications, and (4) improved patient quality of life (QOL). In this field, through interdisciplinary collaboration in accordance with the biodesign process and close cooperation with frontline clinical practice, we function as a hub for medical technology innovation that supports real world implementation—from basic research through prototyping, proof of concept (PoC), regulatory approval and reimbursement, and commercialization.

Research characteristics

We collaborate with academia and startups to leverage their technology seeds and drive projects forward. Our focus areas include the real world implementation of surgical support systems via digital surgery, the realization of next generation digital therapeutics through AI–device integration, and the development of ultra minimally invasive therapies and novel imaging modalities in oncology, aiming to establish new frameworks for treatment and diagnosis. In particular, in our digital surgery initiatives, we utilize the surgical video database we have built to conduct R&D on surgical navigation and on assessing surgeons’ technical skills.