Johnson & Johnson announced today the acquisition of C-SATS, a Seattle CoMotion Labs startup that uses technology to help surgeons improve skills and health outcomes by facilitating performance reviews. In 2012, CoMotion at the University of Washington began supporting this startup and continued to do so over the next couple of years. CoMotion helped the startup move from idea to impact by lending expertise on licensing and supporting team formation as well as providing funding through the CoMotion Innovation Fund and STEP.
Dr. Thomas Lendvay, Associate Professor in the Department of Urology and C-SATS Co-Founder, said, “CoMotion introduced me and my UW Engineering and UW Center for Biomedical Statistics co-founders to Derek Streat who had the start-up experience as CEO. CoMotion provided the initial powder to get C-SATS off the ground which allowed us to hire our first employees and carry out initial validation studies. Our partnership with The Johnson and Johnson Institute leverages a professional improvement mission with scalability to afford surgeons and practicioners around the globe the opportunity to improve patient care.”
C-SATS built a cloud-based performance management system that evaluates surgeons and helps improve their skills. The platform is powered by data capture, analytics and artificial intelligence and will fundamentally change how surgeons learn. It will allow them to anonymously receive input on actual cases to improve their technical skills, which benefits patients, surgeons, and health systems.
C-SATS uses operating room cameras to record a surgeon’s performance. It then pays experts to analyze the video and provide feedback, for example how well a surgeon used their hands to make an incision. The technology is used by some of the nation’s largest health systems.
Johnson & Johnson will integrate C-SATS’ technology into its Johnson & Johnson Institute education and training platform. C-SATS employs more than 20 people and all plan to stay on post-acquisition. Congratulations to all on this exciting outcome!
See related article in GeekWire here.