How HapticHeart Solutions and Innovobot Labs Are Redefining Sense of Touch
Bringing Touch Back to Minimally Invasive Cardiovascular Interventions
When HapticHeart Solutions was founded, its mission was both simple and ambitious: restore the sense of touch to interventional cardiologists performing complex procedures.
The original concept was developed by cardiologist and inventor, Dr. Stuart Schecter, now Chief Innovation Officer at HapticHeart, whose years of practice as a cardiologist combined with a knack for inventiveness, led to the idea of embedding haptic feedback directly into the handles of surgical instruments.
‘’I’ve developed several concepts over my career, but my favorite technology with the broadest applications is the one we’re working on now with HapticHeart.’’
For Christopher Lee, a veteran of Johnson & Johnson’s cardiac device division and now the CEO of HapticHeart, the idea is to bring back something essential to cardiac procedures: “Modern catheter-based cardiac and robotic surgery procedures have advanced so far, but we’ve lost something fundamental – tactile feedback, or the sense of touch while performing these high-risk operations. Operators are forced to rely on visual cues alone, which is not how we’re wired to work,” Christopher explained. “We needed to bring touch back into the equation, but in a way that would fit seamlessly into the operating room.”
The Challenge: Rethinking Haptics in Medical Devices
The journey from that insight to a working, demo-ready prototype was anything but straightforward.
Both knew that haptics solved an unmet need to provide force and tactile feedback during cardiovascular interventions, particularly given the rapid pace of innovation in minimally invasive and robotic procedures. This made their early discussions as part of the Netherlands-based NLC Health Ventures program very stimulating, especially with Dr. Schecter already having an early prototype at that point. It led to the creation of the company, NLC’s first official U.S. based venture.
Now the question: how to bring the technology into an existing suite of products at one of the larger medical device companies?
Christopher recalls “I realized that asking big surgical equipment players to redesign their entire product portfolios around a new handle was a non-starter. We needed a solution that would work with commercially available products.”
This pivotal realization set the stage for HapticHeart’s partnership with Innovobot, a Montreal-based innovation lab renowned for its expertise in human-machine interfaces and haptics.
Partnering with Innovobot: A New Approach to Innovation
Innovobot’s approach to product development is methodical, collaborative, and grounded in real-world application. Their HMI and Haptics Lab, led by Dr. Manuel Cruz, brings together experts in materials science, embedded systems, and perceptual psychology. For HapticHeart, this meant access not just to technical know-how, but to a process that would de-risk innovation at every stage and enable implementation of haptic feedback with a form factor that could be device agnostic and wearable.
“Most suppliers want to sell you their widget,” Christopher said. “Innovobot asked us, ‘What problem are surgeons really trying to solve?’ That flipped our whole development model. They didn’t just want to build what we asked for-they wanted to build what the market needed.”
From Concept to Prototype: Iteration and Discovery
The first phase of the collaboration focused on understanding the landscape of haptic actuators. Innovobot’s team spent six weeks evaluating technologies , ultimately recommending a modular, wearable solution that could be integrated with standard surgical gloves and armbands. This shift was transformative. “We went from thinking about a single instrument to thinking about the surgeon’s entire hand,” Christopher noted. “It opened up possibilities we hadn’t even considered.” Early prototypes were tested with interventional cardiologists at Tulane University, Northwell Health, Montreal Heart, and Stony Brook University, revealing that the device needed to deliver not just a single type of feedback, but a range of sensations related to intra-cardiac pressure, palpation of catheter’s crossing tissue planes, and tissue: catheter contact. Innovobot’s lab responded by developing a low-latency control system and a library of haptic effects, some of which were adapted from their work in automotive and consumer electronics.
Accelerating Development: Innovobot’s HMI Lab in Action
As the prototypes evolved, so did the partnership. Innovobot’s open innovation framework allowed HapticHeart to co-develop their technology, leveraging pre-certified modules and rapid prototyping tools.
According to Christopher, “The speed at which we could iterate was unlike anything I’ve seen in medtech. We’d bring feedback from a surgeon on Friday, and by Monday, Innovobot’s team had a new firmware build ready to test. That’s the kind of agility that startups dream of.”
The result was a TRL 5-6 prototype that was not only technically impressive – delivering quick response times and high-fidelity force feedback – but also practical for the operating room, with a sterilization-ready sleeve and ergonomic design.
Validation at the Heart Rhythm Society: A Turning Point
The true test came at the 2025 Heart Rhythm Society meeting in San Diego, where HapticHeart’s demo station became a focal point for cardiac electrophysiologists and industry leaders alike. Over three days, HapticHeart and Innovobot engaged over one hundred clinicians and industry experts who experienced the device firsthand, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
“We had operators telling us this was the first time they’d ‘felt’ a procedure in years,” Christopher recalled with pride. “One even said, ‘This is the missing sense in modern procedures.’ That’s when we knew we were onto something big.’’
The demo not only validated the technology but also generated significant interest from potential partners, especially in the field of robotic surgery. “We had companies approaching us, unsolicited, asking how they could integrate our system with their platforms. That’s a testament to the credibility Innovobot helped us build.”
Looking Ahead: Commercialization and the Future of Intra-Operative Touch
Looking ahead, HapticHeart is preparing for the next phase: commercialization and regulatory approval. With plans to raise a Series A round and navigate the FDA 510(k) process, the company is leveraging Innovobot’s expertise in design controls and medical device compliance. “We’re not just building a product-we’re creating a new tactile language for operators,” Christopher emphasized. “Innovobot’s ability to balance technical depth with commercial pragmatism makes them the ideal co-pilot. They helped us turn ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ into ‘here’s how we’ll save lives.’ That’s the difference between a science project and a company.”
Conclusion: A Model for Transformative Collaboration
For entrepreneurs and innovators, the HapticHeart story is a powerful example of what’s possible when vision meets execution. Innovobot’s unique blend of deep technical expertise, cross-industry experience, and collaborative spirit enabled HapticHeart to move from concept to market-ready prototype in record time.
“If you’re looking to develop bold new products-especially in fields where human experience is everything-you need a partner who can challenge your assumptions and accelerate your progress,” Christopher concluded. “For us, that partner was Innovobot.”
As HapticHeart Solutions continues its journey, the future of intra-operative touch looks brighter – and more tangible – than ever before.