Venture Briefing @ FHNW Muttenz

Frédéric Schuind, MD, PhD, is an academic orthopaedic surgeon with double citizenship, Swiss and Belgian. He was head of the department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology of Erasme academic hospital (Universite? libre de Bruxelles) and full professor of orthopaedics and of surgery in Brussels, until he became emeritus in October 2020. Having relocated in Switzerland, he has founded Swibrace AG to develop a new paradigm of treatment of fractures using 3D-printed braces. F. Schuind believed that with improved anatomical bracing, it could be possible to achieve equivalent or better results than after surgery to fix the fracture, avoiding the pain and complications of the operation. Swibrace has developed and validated its products with Swiss academic partners, through the support of Innosuisse, till the present stage of a design-protected light brace, now on the Swiss market, with a patent covering an original method of production, granted in Europe and in the USA, and the necessary regulatory in place. When F. Schuind was still professor in Belgium, one of his collaborators came with the idea to operate common indications of hand surgery under a pin hole skin opening, under ultrasound guidance. Spirecut AG, a spin-off of Swibrace, was then founded and has developed, patented and certified Spirecut's Sono-Instruments, which are now internationally sold, after having received CE-marking under MDR and FDA-listing. F. Schuind, coming from a family of successful Swiss entrepreneurs established in Belgium, will explain the challenges that faces an academic doctor, after a long surgical career, to develop a company, and will insist on the supports he founded to achieve his projects in Switzerland - academic support, and daily support of his young and dynamic collaborators.