UMB Surgical Technology Licensed to Medical Device-Based Startup

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has announced that it has licensed UMB-based laparoscopic hysterectomy technology and related patent rights to Soulor Surgical.

Faculty inventor Vadim Morozov, MD, believes the technology has significant potential for the development of surgical tools that could greatly simplify current laparoscopic techniques. Laparoscopic procedures are less invasive than open surgery, the technique more commonly used to perform a hysterectomy.

Morozov, an assistant professor in the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, says "simplifying laparoscopic techniques for hysterectomies would lead to a much faster adoption of this procedure, which would be of great benefit to patients." Another advantage of the technology is that the decreased invasiveness of the procedure would result in shorter post-operative hospital stays.

Based in Jackson Hole, WY, Soulor Surgical is a medical device startup company focusing on the development of surgical tools that can improve current laparoscopic techniques.

Company co-founder Roger Breechen, MD, one of the pioneers in the introduction of minimally invasive GYN surgery, believes that when adopted, the device "would be very cost-effective as it would reduce overall health care costs for hospitals as hysterectomy procedures would no longer require expensive robots."

Both Morozov and Breechen believe that the device greatly simplifies the procedure, which will allow many more OB/GYNs to be able to adopt the technique.

"We are very excited about this startup," states Phil Robilotto, DO, MBA, assistant vice president for technology transfer at UMB. "And with the increasing entrepreneurial culture of the campus, and additional funding for translational research expected, we expect there to be a significant increase in the number of startups based on UMB technology, hopefully with many of them located here in Maryland."