Imagine learning surgery from a textbook versus watching a 3D movie where you can see every layer of tissue exactly as a surgeon would. That's what this project built — an online academy where surgical residents and experienced surgeons learn procedures through stereoscopic 3D videos and virtual reality, step by step. Think of it like a Netflix for surgical education, but in 3D, accessible from a tablet or computer anywhere in the world. It frees up senior surgeons from having to personally teach every trainee, while actually improving training quality.
Surgical training still relies heavily on senior surgeons personally teaching residents in operating rooms and lecture halls — an approach that doesn't scale, pulls experienced surgeons away from patient care, and varies wildly in quality between institutions. Meanwhile, the European market for surgical resident training (€187.5 million) and continuing medical education (€158 million) is largely served by outdated 2D materials that fail to capture the three-dimensional reality of surgery.
The project built the INCISION Academy — a fully functional online surgical training platform with 200 learning modules, 3D stereoscopic video content, virtual reality surgery simulations, personalized course tracks, CME accreditation compatibility, teacher-student and student-student communication tools, digital rights management, and payment service integration. Three successive prototypes (0.5, 1.0, 1.1) were delivered and demonstrated.
If you are a medical education company struggling to scale instructor-led surgical training — this project developed the INCISION Academy, an online platform with up to 200 training modules using 3D stereoscopic video and virtual reality. It enables worldwide distribution through a learning management system, targeting a European surgical training market worth €187.5 million.
If you are a hospital group spending heavily on surgical resident training while your senior surgeons are stretched thin — this project built a CME-compatible online training tool that lets residents learn best-practice procedures on their own time. The European CME market alone is valued at €158 million, and the platform works on mobile, tablet, and desktop.
If you are an e-learning company looking to enter the medical training space — this project created a proven 3D content delivery system supporting stereoscopic video, VR, personalized courses, and digital rights management. The platform scaled from 80 to 200 modules across three prototype iterations and includes payment service integration for commercial distribution.
The project data does not disclose specific licensing fees. However, the INCISION Academy was built with a payment service provider integration and a commercialisation strategy, indicating a subscription or per-module pricing model. Contact the coordinator through SciTransfer for pricing details.
Yes. The platform was specifically designed for worldwide distribution through a learning management system (LMS). It progressed from 80 modules (prototype 0.5) to 200 modules (prototype 1.1) and works across mobile, tablet, and computer. The consortium targeted Europe first, then the USA, China, South America, and developing countries.
The coordinator is INCISION GROUP BV, a Dutch SME. As an Innovation Action under the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot, IP typically stays with the consortium partners. Licensing arrangements would need to be discussed directly with the coordinator through SciTransfer.
The INCISION Academy 1.0 prototype was built to be CME-link compatible, meaning it was designed to integrate with existing CME accreditation systems. This is critical for surgeons who need certified education credits to maintain their licenses.
The project ran from February 2016 to September 2018 (approximately 2.5 years). It produced three working prototypes with progressive feature sets, culminating in a 200-module platform with VR, personalized courses, DRM, and teacher-student communication tools.
The platform includes LMS functionality for distribution and is CME-link compatible, suggesting integration capability with standard medical education infrastructure. It also includes digital rights management (DRM) for content protection in institutional settings.
Based on available project data, the consortium included 5 industry partners across 3 countries (Germany, Spain, Netherlands) with a strong commercial orientation (83% industry ratio). The project website at incision.care suggests ongoing commercial operations beyond the EU-funded period.
The SurgASSIST consortium is exceptionally business-oriented: 5 out of 6 partners are industry players (83% industry ratio), with only 1 university partner, spread across Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. The coordinator, INCISION GROUP BV, is a Dutch SME — meaning the technology was built by a company with direct commercial incentives, not an academic lab. With 3 SMEs in the consortium, this is a team that needed to turn research into revenue. The Fast Track to Innovation Pilot funding scheme confirms this was always intended as a near-market project, making it one of the more commercially mature outputs from Horizon 2020.
INCISION GROUP BV is a Dutch SME — SciTransfer can facilitate a direct introduction to discuss licensing, partnership, or content integration opportunities.
Want to connect with the INCISION Academy team for licensing, white-label partnerships, or content co-development? SciTransfer can arrange a qualified introduction.
