Based in London, the Association of MBA presents several awards designed to recognize excellence and leadership in business education at accredited schools, as well as among their students and alumni.
The awards ceremony will take place in February 2019 in London, and Pereira will travel there to compete against four other projects through his startup, Armor Bionics (AB), which he founded alongside Bruno Demuro. His company offers visual solutions and 3D models to help plan surgeries and conduct tests, ensuring the most effective outcomes.
“It is both an honor and a challenge. Being the only Latin American company selected motivates us to continue on this path toward international expansion, exporting services based on interdisciplinary knowledge from Uruguay to the world,” said Pablo, commercial director of Armor Bionics.
An idea born out of necessity
Bruno's mother had a brain tumor the size of a coin (2–3 centimeters in diameter), and the surgeons had to open her skull to remove it.
To do that, the doctors told him they needed to make an incision about 10 centimeters in diameter—several times the size of the tumor—to ensure that the tumor would be within the exposed area.
However, Bruno found that by using the images obtained from the CT scanner and converting them into three-dimensional models, the exact location of the tumor can be determined.
So, he called on his friend Pablo, who had gained experience in marketing new technologies during his MBA program, to join forces and found what is now Armor Bionics.
Armor Bionics (AB) offers customized solutions for optimizing surgical planning, designed to help professionals visualize and render 3D images derived from existing scans.
Through its online platform, using MRI or CT scans, doctors and patients can obtain highly accurate, printable 3D models that better represent patients’ current anatomical condition, assisting them during the diagnostic and surgical planning stages.
In one of the more than 100 cases they worked on, his company assisted with the surgery for a patient who had broken his jaw in an accident and needed it reconstructed.
Armor Bionics created an exact volumetric replica of the actual jaw, complete with the exact same damage. This allowed the team to test different reconstruction methods, try out screws, and adjust components without spilling a single drop of blood. Once the best course of action was determined, the medical staff performed the surgery.
The results? Improved surgical precision and a significant reduction in operating room time (between 20% and 25%), leading to cost savings. But above all, the project enables less invasive surgeries and saves many lives.
Although they still have a long way to go in exploring and mastering bone engineering, Pablo and Bruno are already dreaming of printing organs, which could enable, among other applications, the testing of drugs, vaccines, or treatments.