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A-Traction Inc.

【AEA 2018 Alumni】
As laparoscopic surgery needs three doctors, the number of operations and the surgical procedure are often limited because of lack of doctors. Although current surgical robot seems to be performing surgery by one doctor, the number of doctors is not reduced because other doctors are necessary to assist robot procedure. We propose a new robot that cooperatively operates with a surgeon. Our robot can replace both a scopist and an assistant, and can be controlled by handheld tools which is commonly used in laparoscopic surgery. As this concept enables direct control of assistants while the surgeon is operating normal procedure, the surgeon can operate surgery as they want anytime. Furthermore, as conventional laparoscopic surgery can be operated by only one surgeon, many of surgery can be operated even if the hospital doesn’t have enough doctors.

TAKEHIRO ANDO
CEO

Nominated by

TAKASHI FUKUYAMA – Japan
Partner,
MedVenture Partners, Inc.
A-Traction is the first startup from Japan that is developing a truly needs based robotic-assisted surgical system. They have teamed up with the National Cancer Center Hospital East to develop an innovative system that aims to take the cutting-edge TaTME procedure for colorectal cancer and make it into a much more easily performable and highly successful procedure. The A-Traction system will allow the TaTME procedure to be performed at hospitals across Japan and therefore directly impact the QOL of colorectal cancer patients all over the country.
A-Traction is comprised of a team of highly experienced engineers that are dedicated to changing the landscape of the medical field in Japan. They have taken what was just an idea 3 years ago and made it into a fully functioning prototype. Their system is not limited to only the TaTME procedure, but it can also be used in a multitude of other general surgery procedures and will try to transform how surgeries are performed in Japan and throughout the world.