Changing the surgical landscape

Meet the team behind Synaptic Medical

Synaptive team

Synaptive Medical is reimagining medical devices in operating rooms across North America.

The company believes that the best care decisions happen when doctors have access to data they need — including imaging data — where and when they need it. In neurosurgery, Synaptive technology maps structural pathways in the brain to create 3D renderings of a person’s brain fibres. Combined with the latest in navigation, robotics, informatics and optics technology, Synaptive Medical is changing the surgical landscape.

In July 2016, Synaptive received Health Canada approval for their suite of devices, and installed their first Canadian system in Vancouver last November. The company continues to expand its U.S. presence while entering international markets.

Cameron Piron (BASc ’98), president and co-founder of Synaptive, and three of the company’s senior team are Waterloo alumni, including Josh Richmond (BASc ’98), Kai Hynna (BASc ’98) and Thanh Vuong (MASc ’02). Synaptive also hires many Waterloo co-op students.

“Synaptive is built on teams of teams,” says Piron. “It’s a network effect. Beyond the friendship we established at Waterloo, the Systems Design Engineering program prepared us for the med tech industry by teaching us to bring together disparate system elements and integrate them for the patient.”

“I worked at Sentinelle Medical with Cameron, his previous company,” says Richmond. “When he told me about Synaptive in 2013, I jumped in. We were 10 people then; we’re over 300 now.”

Hynna and Vuong also joined that year. “I was at another startup with two systems classmates but looking to move on,” Hynna says. “The timing was perfect.”

“I joined RIM after my undergrad,” says Vuong. “Over 15 years, I saw it grow from 200 people to 20,000. When Josh reached out, I was intrigued to bring 21st-century tools to a field that had long been stagnant.”

Waterloo’s network continues to play a key role for Synaptive. “We have a lot to do and Waterloo students become productive quickly,” says Richmond. “Co-op experience counts for a lot here.”

“Opportunities in medical technology are tremendous,” says Piron. “Finding seasoned mentors to help you quickly work through problems is crucial. We were shaped by that experience at Waterloo and it’s the kind of environment we’re building at Synaptive.”


Feature image courtesy of Synaptic Medical


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