Updated2022-02-28 11:55
A few days ago, CCTV News broadcast "The Integrated Development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Enters a New Stage", focusing on the improvement of Dongguan's industrial chain to help Hong Kong and Macao youths innovate and start businesses. The news report said that in Songshan Lake, Dongguan, Xie Zhiheng, a young man from Hong Kong, was testing the newly developed orthopaedic surgery robot these days. Thanks to the increasingly complete industrial chain in Dongguan, the company's products have been updated for three generations in less than a year.
The company founded by Xie Zhiheng is called Mvisioner. Since its establishment in 2015, Mvisioner has built a new intelligent surgical guidance platform and a holographic medical education platform with years of technological accumulation in artificial intelligence, medical imaging, computer, physics, virtual reality, etc. At present, Mvisioner has a branch in Songshan Lake International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community. It has a variety of products such as surgical robots, VR surgical navigation, VR preoperative planning, holographic medical education, and cloud image database. Mvision is the crystallization of the collaboration of Shenzhen and Hong Kong science and technology industries. It is a member of the Engineering Technology Center of the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province. It has won the special prize of Dongguan Songshan Lake Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the first prize in the biomedical group of the 10th China Shenzhen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Besides, it has been certified as a national high-tech enterprise and a Shenzhen high-tech enterprise.
Hong Kong’s “Maker”utilizesgeographicaladvantages to significantly reduce the cost of R&D equipment compared with imported equipment
Xie Zhiheng holds a Ph.D.degree in Physics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering from the University of Auckland. He has 6 years of experience in nuclear magnetic resonance machine research and development and management. In 2015, he took his company to Shenzhen, which was originally founded in Hong Kong's Cyberport.
Xie Zhiheng, the founder of Mvisioner
Initially, Mvisioner mainly developed software products in the medical field, including holographic medical education, VR preoperative planning system and other products. With the expansion of market demand, Mvisioner began to develop hardware products, which means that Mvisioner needs to open up new paths to connect with the upstream and downstream supply chains more quickly. Xie Zhiheng believes that Dongguan is the best choice for enterprises to develop and produce hardware products in the Greater Bay Area, and Mvisioner subsequently settled in Songshan Lake in 2019. Xie Zhiheng said that after using the preoperative planning system developed by the company, many doctors hoped that the company could develop a robot based on the system, which is able to participate in not only the preoperative preparation but also the whole surgical process, so as to improve the standardization and accuracy of surgical operations. If this product is successfully developed, it means that no matter which hospital patients choose, the surgical success rate can be improved through the standardized surgery of the surgical robot.
VR surgical planning system developed by Mvisioner
As a result, Mvisioner began to focus on the research and development of orthopedic surgical robots since 2019, but the process was not smooth. “Affected by the epidemic at that time, most hospitals’ funds were basically only used in the field of emergency medical treatment. At the same time, it was difficult for some employees in our company to travel to and from Dongguan. It was difficult for the company to operate and our research and development work was hindered.” In order to survive, Mvisioner developed temperature checking products during the period, which were well-received in overseas markets and greatly eased the cash flow pressure on the company. Xie Zhiheng said that with the support of national policies and funds, there are many surgical robot companies in China. What Mvisioner has chosen is a highly competitive track. Therefore, it is very important to find the right position in the development process. The interface and algorithm of the surgical robot of Mvisioner were completed in Hong Kong, the industrialization of software was implemented in Shenzhen, Dongguan provided all hardware facilities, Guangzhou helped the clinical testing and registration of the overall medical device, and Zhuhai provided various exhibition opportunities and platforms for communication with experts.
Xie Zhiheng said that the Greater Bay Area has a relatively mature upstream and downstream supply chain, and companies have basicallyreached 80% of their independent R&D and production process, which in turn has led to a reduction in costs and are affordable for more hospitals with orthopedic surgery services. The geographical advantages of being located in the Greater Bay Area combined with the strength of the corporate team have enabled Mvisioner to successfully find its own position. “The price of surgical robots imported from abroad may range from 10 million to 30 million yuan. Our robots have better parameters, but the price is only 1/4 of that of others.” Xie Zhiheng said.
R&D Support + Talent Support
Focus on accelerating the development of medical orthopedics
Looking back, Xie Zhiheng admitted that entrepreneurship is a processstarting from scratch. At first, entrepreneurs could only explore by themselves, and recruiting talents is also a major difficulty faced by enterprises. “High-end talents are often attracted by well-known companies. Fortunately, now we are slowly building up a core team, and the average working experience of employees is more than 3 years.”
Mvision Talent Team
Xie Zhiheng said thatwhen recruiting talents, it is very important to see whether the candidates recognize the company's development concept. “The research and development cycle of medical products like ours is long and it takes quite some time to generate profits. Only with firm belief can the team overcome various difficulties.” Xie Zhiheng pointed out that the corporate vision of Mvisioner is to make technology-intensive medical products that can reduce China's medical costs. "We hope to use the knowledge we have learned to repay the society, and the products developed will help improve domestic medical level, which is very meaningful."
At the same time, settling in Songshan Lake has alsocontributed a lot to the development of Mvisioner. “Currently, Songshan Lake makes great efforts to support technology-based enterprises, and actively promotes the connection between young talents from universities in the Greater Bay Area and enterprises in the park. This is a very good plan. Young talents have the opportunity to intern in enterprises they are interested in, and we also have more opportunities to recruit talents.”In 2019, Xie Zhiheng participated in the Songshan Lake Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and won the special prize, and has received a total of 10 million yuan in angel investment. In addition, the numerous shared scientific research equipment provided by the Songshan Lake International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community has helped Mvisioner improve its efficiency of research and development, and the data is more detailed and rich.
The VR surgical planning system of Mvisioner
At present, Mvisioner’s VR surgical planning system and medical education products have been put into use in many hospitals and research institutions. Through AR/VR technology, the virtual reality medical anatomy teaching system of Mvisioner displays the model on the stereoscopic display device. Users can rotate, zoom out, and move the standard 3D model of the human body, so as to observe the human body structure clearly and conveniently. Teaching is more convenient, students are more interested, and the quality of teaching is improved.
Up to now,the products of Mvisioner have been awarded several medical device registration certificates and European Union (CE) registration certificates. Mvisioner's surgical planning system has been used in more than 60 hospitals across the country, including Guangzhou Southern Hospital, Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Beijing 304 Hospital. In addition, the surgical robot system jointly developed by Mvisioner and Guangzhou Southern Hospital has been updated for three generations in less than a year, which is nearly double the speed of research and development process of other products of the same level in the world. The product is currently in the clinical trial stage.
Xie Zhiheng revealed that this year Mvisioner will complete the clinical trial of the surgical robot, and it is planned to be launched by the end of the year. In the next three years, the company hopes to expand the application scope of surgical robots to cover most orthopaedic diseases, including the hip joint, knee joint and spine, and transform them into general-purpose orthopedic surgical robots, while accelerating the capitalization of enterprises.
Source: Songshan Lake Rong Media Center
