Ryerson Alumni - Summer 2017 - 18

happen when both sets of knowledge are in one brain," says Yang.
When Yang was doing his neurosurgical residency in 2008, he
was amazed that a master surgeon knows exactly how and where
to safely insert a screw into a spinal vertebral that lay hidden
below the surface, based on limited visible surface features and
the patient's CT scans.
Frustrated with the limitations of existing surgical navigation systems, Yang thought there had to be a better way for all surgeons to
actually see the entire surgical site, including subsurface features,
in real time by using a computer with an optical 3D imaging system.
"I wanted to give people the vision of a master surgeon," he says.
So in his Bioengineering and Biophotonics research lab at
Ryerson, Yang devised a new, radiation-free optical imaging
technology for surgical navigation. The system is embedded in an
operating room overhead surgical light filled with LEDs (light
emitting diodes), which shines a sequence of light onto the surgically exposed surface at very high speed. The computer captures
the light reflecting off the surgical site's surface and rapidly calculates its three-dimensional shape; this is called topographical
imaging. The computer matches the surface information with data
from the patient's MRI/CT scan, producing, in real time, a detailed,
3D map of the patient's anatomy, including subsurface information, which the surgeons can use as they operate.
"All surgeons are trained to use a surgical operating room light
and we were able to build the system with inexpensive, off-theThe dream team
shelf components, such as computer projectors and cameras, to
The ability to think like both an engineer and a surgeon is the
keep manufacturing costs low," Yang says.
key to the success of Dr. Victor Yang's cutting-edge work at 7D
He co-founded 7D Surgical in 2009, with a Ryerson team that
Surgical. Yang is a Canada Research Chair in Bioengineering and
includes Beau Standish and Adrian Mariampillai (his former
Biophotonics at Ryerson and a neurosurgeon at Sunnybrook Health
post-doctoral fellows who are now CEO and CTO), researcher/
Sciences Centre. He's the co-founder of 7D Surgical, a specialized
engineer Michael Leung and scientist Peter Siegler, to fabricate
medical device that enables surgeons to perform delicate procethe system and commercialize the technology. "Having strong
dures to repair spinal injuries, and remove brain tumors with far
personal drive is important to be a successful entrepreneur. But
greater accuracy, speed and safety. "Certain 'aha' moments only
unlike some entrepreneurs, who want to do it all themselves, I knew
I needed the right team. We had a big team to start the company, with great
skills, and everybody shares the same dream," says Yang.
7D Surgical, which now employs 30 people, has received more than $10-million in private investment, including seed funding from about a dozen investors
from the Ryerson Angels Network, and about $1-million from FedDev Ontario
to bring its game-changing surgical navigation system to market.
"Ryerson encourages inventors to commercialize their inventions and make
it all happen. Without Ryerson's support and those angel investors who took
the early risk with a startup company, we couldn't have done it," says Yang.
The prototype device has been used in clinical trials in 170 surgical procedures at Sunnybrook hospital. "Preliminary research shows that our system is
as accurate as existing devices and much faster, which helps speed up surgical
workflow," says Yang. "The most rewarding thing for me is the patients we've
helped through the clinical trials. We had one young woman who fell off a
rooftop while working in construction. She had two broken vertebrae and a
fractured spine, and she couldn't walk. The surgery was very successful and
DR. VICTOR YANG,
10 days later she walked down the aisle with a surgical bandage sticking out
CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR,
of her wedding dress," says Yang.
BIOENGINEERING AND
BIOPHONICS
By January 2017, 7D Surgical won FDA clearance and Health Canada
approval. "We expect to make the first few sales this spring. In the next few
years, we're aiming to penetrate the U.S. market and parts of Canada, and then
look to expand. We truly believe it is a disruptive technology that would benefit
all spinal and brain surgery patients and beyond," Yang says.
a photo of the wound and uploaded it to Figure 1. Yusuf Dimas, an
internal medicine resident at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, saw
the photo, did some research and correctly concluded the patient
was suffering from Leishmaniasis, a prevalent infection in unsanitary conditions, and suggested a course of drugs to treat it.
Levey targeted tech-savvy future doctors to successfully launch
the app and drive user growth. "We knew the hot spot would be
young residents and medical students. Between 65 per cent and
70 per cent of medical students in the U.S. and Canada now use
Figure 1," says Levey.
Figure 1 has a network of millions in 190 countries and has
reached two billion views. They have raised more than $20 million
from venture capitalists and one of the early funders was New Yorkbased Union Square Ventures, an early investor in Twitter, Tumblr,
Etsy and Kickstarter.
The company continues to add new features, such as paging,
which allows users to reach specialists around the world and get
their feedback instantly. The next big challenge for Figure 1 is making money from the business. "We will be doing some monetization pilots in the coming months. We don't want to be acquired
by someone else and we want to turn this into a self-sustaining
company," Levey says.

"Ryerson
encourages
inventors to
commercialize
their inventions
and make
it all happen."

Ryerson University Magazine / Summer 2017

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