News
VOXEL-MAN receives €424,000 EXIST-Forschungstransfer Grant for Development of Dental Simulator
August 12, 2009
The Voxel-Man Group of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, has received a €424,000 grant from the EXIST-Forschungstransfer program of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) for its start-up project Development of a simulator for the training of dental procedures. With this computer-based simulator, a realistic treatment of carious lesions will be possible, thus vastly improving the quality of pre-clinical training, making the step to the real patients much easier for the students, while lowering costs for the dental schools. Using high resolution dental models and special haptic algorithms, the teeth will not only look, but also feel highly realistic. Among other advantages are an automatic skills assessment, which allows for a complementary self-study for the first time.
About EXIST-Forschungstransfer
The EXIST-Forschungstransfer program which was initiated in 2007 by the Federal Government provides a basis for support of outstanding, research-based business start-up projects, which require complex and risky development work. The grant covers the major part of the development costs over a period of 18 months. After formation of a company, there is an option on a further support for reaching marketability and the start of business operations.
About Voxel-Man
The Voxel-Man Group which was established in 2005 has already developed a simulator for surgical access to the middle ear, which is marketed by a commercial partner and in use in places as diverse as China, Germany, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The members of the group are Dr. Andreas Pommert, Dr. Andreas Petersik, Bernhard Pflesser, Dr. Ulf Tiede, and Prof. Dr. Karl Heinz Höhne as a mentor. Development of the dental simulator is in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Ursula Platzer and Dr. Rüdiger Lemke (Dept. of Restorative and Preventive Dentistry); the virtual tooth models are developed in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Michael Amling and Dr. Michael Hahn (Center for Biomechanics). The grant application was supported by the MediGate technology transfer agency and the Hamburg Business Start-Up Program. For more information about Voxel-Man, visit www.voxel-man.de.
