Image-guided therapy developer IMRIS has signed an agreement with MacDonald, Dettwiler, and Associates (MDA) for the final stages of collaborative development of a MR-guided surgical robot.
The multimillion-dollar agreement names MDA as IMRIS' development and preferred manufacturing partner for image-guided surgical robotics. IMRIS and MDA began work in 2010 on the robotic surgery system, which would bring together real-time MR imaging with surgical robotics in a fully integrated IMRIS surgical suite.
The system is initially being designed to perform microsurgery and biopsy-stereotaxy applications on the brain with submillimeter precision, although the technology is ultimately expected to extend into a broad range of surgical applications, according to IMRIS.
A clinical trial using the first generation of the robot is currently under way with a cohort of 120 patients at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, Alberta. Given current development plans, IMRIS anticipates it will be in a position to seek regulatory approval as early as the second quarter of 2012.
The companies plan to demonstrate the system next month at the 2011 Congress of Neurological Surgeons in Washington, DC.
