Interview With Ken Gall, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Restor3d
Welcome to another series of founder spotlight! We’re featuring a prominent engineer and entrepreneur in this edition; meet Ken Gall, co-founder, and Chief Commercial Officer of restor3d—a company specializing in personalized healthcare solutions through the development of 3D-printed orthopedic implants. Ken Gall’s contributions to biomedical engineering and his entrepreneurial ventures reflect a dedication to advancing healthcare through innovative technology. His expertise has garnered significant recognition, with his research publications cited over 16,000 times.
Let’s hear from Ken about how Restor3d transforms healthcare by providing customized solutions through advanced technology.
Hi Ken, Glad to have you on our Founder Spotlight series. What inspired you to start restor3d?
The other founders and I felt that the new technologies emerging in the marketplace provided an opportunity to think differently about orthopedics and focus on personalized implants and reconstructions. We also believed that with the right technology platform it was possible to build a disruptive company across multiple reconstruction areas in parallel versus the single specialty approach in most classic orthopedic startups.
How does restor3d’s technology differ from traditional orthopedic implants and solutions?
We have three differentiating technology platforms.
- Digital Design. In-house AI and software based design automation to rapidly and cost effectively go from a CT scan to a fully digitized device design file. Although all companies design off the shelf implants using design software, it’s rare to have a way to move quickly and seamlessly between patient imaging data and a final design for implants that vary with every single patient.
- Digital Manufacturing. In-house 3D printing of patient specific implants containing a universal osseointegration material. This is in contrast to most 3D printing approaches which are good at large batches of identical implants but not efficient at patient specific implants with a large diversity of shapes, sizes, and porosity locations/volumes.
- App/Planning Software. Our in-house developed and maintained mobile app r3id allows us to work with surgeons at their staff to upload, plan, and store past cases. This universal App is unique to the high volume and diversity of patient specific implants we do as a company.
We are also now entering into the enabling technologies focusing on robotic delivery systems to complement our 3D printed implants.
Can you explain how the r3id Personalized Surgery Platform works?
This is a unique mobile platform with rapid login and easy case management. Surgeons and/or staff first upload a case. After this, the surgeons work with our engineering teams through the app to either schedule and attend design calls or simply approve surgical plans once available. The App also stores all case information for surgeons so they can look at past cases in 3D, examine current design plans, and even generate posts for linkedin about their cases.
What role does AI play in your additive manufacturing and design processes?
AI plays an essential role in what we do, especially in digital design. We have FDA cleared platforms for AI based auto segmentation for nearly all large joints, and design for some devices. Essentially the AI algorithms use past case data to help make decisions about how to segment a CT scan or design a device based on prior engineering choices and surgeon preferences.
How has your partnership with Duke University influenced restor3d’s product development and innovation?
Duke has been an amazing partner since the business was spun out of Duke in 2017. The biggest impact has been the proximity of pioneering surgeons across all specialties who we work with, along with local engineering talent coming out of both Duke and NC state!
What challenges did you face in developing restor3d, and how did you overcome them?
The single biggest challenge in my view has been “building the rocket during takeoff”. We found immediate and strong demand for patient specific devices across the entire human skeletal system.While this has been amazing for us to help patients in need, it has meant we have had to quickly assemble a unique manufacturing facility, a flexible quality system, a diverse engineering team, and a broad commercial team all at once. While doing that we also acquired three other companies with their own advanced technologies and great team members, two of them private and one public.
In my view we have overcome the challenge of doing many things, quickly, by having world class team members who are all partial owners in our business.
What are the key benefits of having an in-house design and manufacturing process for your products?
Without this we would be unable to deliver a diverse set of complex patient specific products in short delivery times. In essence, I believe our business could not exist in its current form without having these things in house. We deliver well over 10,000 patient specific implants a year and this scale would not be possible without our in-house manufacturing.
How does restor3d plan to stay ahead in this rapidly evolving field?
Our biggest advantage is new technology and we are continually investing in new technologies – both in 3D printing and manufacturing and design/AI based automation. We have just hired a leader in the robotics and navigation space to enter into surgical robotics, an effort extremely compatible with patient specific implants.
Congrats on the funding. How was the experience, and how do you plan to manage the cap table after funding?
Thank you. We have a fun and exciting story to tell so we enjoyed the fundraising. As always it’s lots of work, but very rewarding and we get to meet lots of great new investors who share our vision. It’s been an amazing ride to get to work with them all. Our cap table is different from most private companies,we have lots of really thoughtful and experienced individual angel investors and it’s a pleasure to get to interact with them all. Many of them visit our site and get to take part in our journey directly which is somewhat different for them than investing in a typical fund.
Lastly, What trends in digital health and 3D printing are you most excited about, and how do they align with restor3d’s future goals?
There is a very strong trend for direct to patient interaction using digital health platforms. This is an area we are investing in, and very excited about. We feel that along with personalized implants and surgical delivery, patients should have access to personalized interaction with us. Our patients carry our implant as a part of them the rest of their lives and we are committed to supporting this journey the best we can.
