KARLSRUHE, Germany – (BUSINESS WIRE) – The newly renovated and expanded Endoscopic Spinal Academy (ESPINEA®) facilities, sponsored by joimax®, makes exceptionally, high-quality training accessible in an innovative and appealing environment. Every day, the Academy offers educational and hands-on workshops to surgery teams, customers and partners.

Ries took on the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Business Development and Operations at joimax®. In this position, based in Germany, he will be responsible for scaling global operations to ensure joimax® continues its exponential growth. Formerly the General Manager, for the past six of his 13-year tenure with joimax®, Ries built out the United States and Latin American markets. 

“We are continuously developing and adapting our programs to meet customer demand”.

Courses and workshops at a pre-clinical and clinical levels

For almost five years, ESPINEA®, which is accredited by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, has stood for excellence in training in the field of endoscopic spinal surgery. After the recent inauguration of ESPINEA® China, joimax® has refurbished and enlarged the existing Karlsruhe training facilities into a modern, state-of-the art center to support their growing educational and training programs. The showroom demonstrates solutions from joimax®, the market leader in endoscopic spinal surgery technologies, enabling visitors to experience this mastery daily.

Organized in sections, by product line, practitioners can try out each clinical model, simulating an operative environment, and learn firsthand about the positive ergonomics and streamlined workflow of these offerings. All labs are equipped with integrated joimax® surgery systems, including the latest generation endoscopic tower, NAVENTO®. The surgery stations are digitally connected to imaging and to the joimax® Intracs® electromagnetic navigation system so that the endoscopic spinal surgery methods and applications can be reproduced during training. Moreover, the furnishings have been fully optimized so that the rooms can be easily adapted to new products and solutions.

“As a leading innovator in spinal surgery techniques, it’s important that ESPINEA® offers a pioneering center to further education and training,” said Wolfgang Ries, CEO and founder of joimax® and chairman and founder of ESPINEA®. “The dynamic, holistic and needs-oriented program sets new standards.”

The main focus is on endoscopic spinal care solutions for pain therapy, decompression, deherniation, and spinal stabilization. All hands-on sections have an open lab design, and bring the concept to life on how the products work together.

Setting standards in training of endoscopic spinal surgery

Professional knowledge and well-practiced skills are the building blocks for successful endoscopic spinal surgery.

“We are continuously developing and adapting our programs to meet customer demand,” said Susanne Schmidinger, senior director, global marketing and education. “We are convinced that our holistic and target-oriented education puts surgery teams in the position to optimally implement our available technologies and solutions for their patients.“

At the facility, an experienced, dedicated global team of certified faculty share their expertise and know-how. Every trainee is individually accompanied along the entire learning journey.

“It’s important that surgeons be able to directly and efficiently apply joimax® systems and methods in their daily work,” said Ries. “That’s why we developed the ESPINEA® 3-step education program of visitation, hands-on workshop, and simulated live surgery.”

The program is available at ESPINEA® USA, Asia, China, and Europe.

 

Maximilian Ries

Ries took on the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Business Development and Operations at joimax^®. In this position, based in Germany, he will be responsible for scaling global operations to ensure joimax^® continues its exponential growth. Formerly the General Manager, for the past six of his 13-year tenure with joimax^®, Ries built out the United States and Latin American markets.

Tony Troncale

Troncale was promoted to General Manager; he was formerly Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at joimax^® Inc. Over the past two years, Troncale, in addition to increasing his responsibilities, successfully capitalized on the significant interest in endoscopic techniques to expand US sales operations. He joined joimax^® in 2021 bringing 20-years of experience in the spinal device industry where he served in sales and marketing leadership roles at Stryker, K2M, and Synthes Spine. Contributing to the global organization’s continuous strong sales growth was the launch of a new surgical access system, “Tessys^® Trans SAP” and the global expansion of the ESPINEA^® Education Academy.

Wolfgang Ries

“I am extremely pleased with our 2022 global performance and the significant interest in endoscopic spine surgery,” stated joimax^® Founder and CEO Wolfgang Ries. “With Max and Tony in their new roles, our market-leading endoscopic spine technologies, and our anticipated launch of two more new surgical access systems later in 2023, we are well positioned for another very successful year.”

Karlsruhe (GER) — German-based joimax^®, the market leader in technologies and training methods for full-endoscopic and minimally invasive spinal surgery, is excited to announce a major spike in attendance at its Endoscopic Spine Academy (ESPINEA^®) workshops, which contributes to sustainable growth after another year of record revenues in 2021.

The growing interest can be attributed to increased coverage in literature and publications as cited on PubMed^®. Moreover, the joimax^®-initiated workshop program, now under the umbrella of ESPINEA^®, offers optimal training for a variety of applications and procedures, making it attractive to a broader audience. 

joimax^® established ESPINEA^® three years ago. In Fall 2020, the Endoscopic Spine Academy was accredited by the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh (RCSEd). It is one of only four Accreditation Centers that meet its strict rigorous internal quality assurance processes. Together, with its growing team of faculty, joimax^® developed the complete six-step curriculum to bridge the learning curve for spine surgeons. The curriculum, which was approved by the RCSEd, is developed as an educational program from beginners to masters alike.

J.N. Alastair Gibson DSc MD FRCSEd, a RCSEd and ESPINEA^® Advisory Board Member sums it up: “The ESPINEA^® mission is to serve endoscopic spine surgeons by providing a growing global network for lifelong learning to best benefit the patient. Our vision is to be the world’s leading interdisciplinary community in endoscopic spine surgery.”

In addition to holding ESPINEA^® courses at the joimax^®-owned premises in Karlsruhe (Germany) and Irvine (USA), they are also held at ORSI Academy (Belgium) and at other prestigious universities, such as Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg (Austria). Recently, ESPINEA^® was rolled out in Thailand. Prior to the July PASMISS Meeting, the courses will be launched in Singapore for the APAC region, and following the October SMISS Meeting, launched widely in the U.S.

“Given the ongoing development of endoscopic spine surgery with more and more technological options, the benefits for the patients, along with the substantial publication, I am convinced that endoscopic spine surgery is now the gold standard,” states Iprenburg Spine Clinic Founder and ESPINEA^® Advisory Board Member Dr. Menno Iprenburg.

With the ESPINEA^® courses, surgeons can train on different procedures using the joimax^® TESSYS^®, iLESSYS^®, CESSYS^®, MultiZYTE^®, EndoLIF^®, Percusys^® based on the latest NAVENTO^® tower. Most of the courses are conducted in a hybrid mode — online and on-site presentations and lectures combined with in-person hands-on training using models, simulators and anatomical specimens.

ESPINEA^® was established as an open education platform for other players in the field of spinal surgery as well. Therefore, further supporters have already joined and new entrants are welcomed.