Ortech Systems

In the early 2000s, Ortech founders Jeff Guerin and Sean Volkaert worked in clinical research collecting and analyzing patient outcome data for orthopedic surgeons

It all started with us simply wanting to work more efficiently. We were in charge of data collection and reporting at the hospital. At the time, we had five world-renowned surgeons with a high volume of surgeries. They were traveling and reporting on patients and studies they were doing, as well as teaching and training other surgeons.

At the time, everything was paper-based, manually entering information into Excel spreadsheets. We required a large team, and even with that, we were always under the gun, struggling to meet deadlines for abstracts and papers.

After a few years of this, we thought – there has to be a better way.

We began creating a local Access database to make things more efficient and to improve reporting. Surgeons took interest and wanted to see what we were doing, and we gave away copies to show the structure; to get their feedback and improve.

Surgeons supported us because they liked what we were doing. Eventually, we were encouraged by our employers to leave and establish Ortech Systems.