A European standard for surgical training
Building the surgical training of tomorrow, today.
There will never be enough body donations to train every surgeon in Europe. But we can build a model for every challenge — so it is mastered on the bench, before it ever reaches a patient.
The gap nobody talks about
Patients assume surgical training is standardised. Today, it cannot be.
Hands-on training depends on human body donation — limited in number, in availability, and in the pathologies it can present. A real, reproducible standard only becomes possible once every surgeon can train the same challenge, the same way, as many times as it takes.
Irreplaceable for the original. But scarce, variable in pathology, and impossible to schedule on demand. It can never scale to every surgeon on the continent.
Any pathology. Any quantity. On demand. A model for every obstacle a surgeon will face — repeated until the hand has mastered it.
A model will never fully equal the original. Its value is not in the print — it is in the continuous course cycle that keeps drawing the model closer to clinical reality.
From Tirol to a European standard
Three steps from a single course to a continental standard.
Unlimited where donation runs out
Where body donation reaches its limit, additive manufacturing takes over. Every surgeon trains the same case, to the same quality, as often as mastery requires.
Models that keep improving
Each course feeds back into the next model. Surgeon, anatomist, engineer — a closed loop of refinement that no single printout could ever replace.
Accredited across Europe
Courses built for EACCME / UEMS accreditation, so a mastered skill means the same thing in Innsbruck, Bolzano, or anywhere on the continent.
Open to every medical institution in Europe
Three ways to join — at the level that fits you.
A standard is built by a network, not a single centre. Any European medical institution can take part on the level that matches its ambition and resources — and the more you contribute, the less it costs.
Development partner
Co-engineer new models. Bring your clinical expertise and pathologies into the standard, and shape the training the whole network uses.
Host institution
Run accredited courses on site. Bring the standard to your region, train your own and visiting surgeons, and become a recognised venue.
Sending institution
Send your surgeons to train on the standard. The simplest way to join — give your team access to unlimited, accredited, hands-on training.
Every level feeds the next: development partners create the models, host institutions spread them, sending institutions sustain them. Together they make the standard real — and self-supporting.
Additive, never substitutive
The university and the private sector each do what the other cannot.
This is not a contest between cadaver and model, or between academia and industry. It is an interdependence. The university brings the anatomical truth and the academic authority. We bring the quality control: the scaling, the iteration speed, the standardisation, the refinancing that an academic structure is not built to deliver.
Together — and only together — they become a standard.
| University | Anatomical and academic validity. Human body donation. Scientific authority and oversight. |
| Private sector | Quality control: model development, course delivery, scaling, accreditation, refinancing. |
| The result | Better craftsmanship before the first cut — and fewer errors where it matters most: the patient. |
Already proven
LidSUMMIT showed that training on 3D-printed models is becoming the standard.
An internationally validated surgical wetlab course, born in Tirol, proves the core thesis: development costs can be refinanced through course participation, and surgeons gain a better training offer than donation alone can provide. The proof of concept exists. The next step is scaling it into a European standard.
Built on the Anatomical Training Hub — a partnership of MedUni Innsbruck, eyecre.at and Addion. See the proof of concept at lidsummit.com.
Independent by design
Real training, not a product demo.
High-quality surgical education cannot exist without reaching the surgeons who need it — and reaching them without depending on industry sponsorship is what keeps the training independent.
We build our own audience and run our own outreach. That is a deliberate choice, not a marketing afterthought: whoever pays for the reach shapes the content. By owning it ourselves, we make sure every course stays genuine, hands-on education — never a product presentation in disguise.
Whoever pays for the reach shapes the content. So we own the reach — and the content stays ours.
Courses are built around the skill, not around a device or a sponsor's catalogue.
We bring the standard directly to Europe's surgeons — independently, at scale.
Independence is what EACCME credibility is built on — and what we protect.
In partnership with
Built by the people who set the standard.
Surgical Standard is delivered through a partnership of clinical and academic authority with the engineering and operational capacity to scale it across Europe.
Supported & advised over years
Backed by Tirol's public innovation ecosystem.
This is not a standing start. The groundwork was laid over years of public support — funding from the Province of Tirol, strategic advice from Standortagentur Tirol, and a home for eyecre.at inside Health Hub Tirol. That long-term backing is what made an additive, scalable approach to surgical training possible.
Funded by
Years of funding from the Province of Tirol (Land Tirol) supported the research and development behind the additive-training approach.
Advised by
Standortagentur Tirol provided strategic guidance and funding advisory as the concept took shape.
Hosted at
eyecre.at is based in Health Hub Tirol — Tirol's hub for life-sciences and medical-technology innovation.
Let's develop it together
The best training, delivered to every surgeon.
Not to expand the system — to raise its quality. If you are a clinic, a university, an accrediting body or a partner who shares the goal, we want to hear from you.
Start a conversation