As 2025 comes to a close, Roger Johnson, CEO of Axial3D, reflects on the company’s journey, the challenges and opportunities in healthcare, and the ways 3D technology is transforming patient care.

Q: How has Axial3D grown and evolved over the years?

Roger: “Our growth over the last 5 years, in particular over the past 12 months, has surpassed even my wildest expectations. Even with challenges like COVID, we’ve been able to bring to market solutions that are both precise and automated, and our customers and partners have consistently told us that we’re setting new standards. This is hugely validating.

On top of this, what’s particularly interesting is how our business model has evolved. Back when the company was started in 2016, we thought a direct-to-hospital model was the way to go, which of course was predicated on “at scale” reimbursement from either public healthcare systems or private insurers. Over time and as the pace of adoption of appropriate reimbursement dragged on, we realized a partner/channel model, with us working with medical device and imaging companies to reach those hospitals, would be much more effective. This partnering approach allows us to reach hundreds of thousands, and then millions of patients faster, with a more targeted and scalable approach than a direct-to-hospital strategy could ever have achieved.”

Q: What challenges do your customers face, and how does Axial3D help?

Roger: “Medical device companies, and not only the large ones, are looking for ways to fundamentally differentiate themselves. For many, it’s not just about incremental improvements; they want to move patient care forward in a meaningful, step-change way. Patient-specific care is one of the biggest opportunities for that. Axial3D is seen as THE fundamental enabler of making this shift because, at our core, we provide the technology to make patient-specific solutions massively scalable without compromising on quality. This technology capability is further augmented with our foundational market patents, which give all of our customers a fundamental competitive advantage over their competitors”

Q: What makes Axial3D scalable?

Roger: “Our scalability comes from several factors. First, we are a born-in-the-cloud platform. AWS gives us the ability to perform in effect unlimited numbers of transactions in minutes or even seconds. Next, our AI is FDA-approved for automated and semi-automated workflows and we recently received our PCCP approval to allow us to continually improve and update our algorithms. We also work with AWS to ensure we have the compute, storage, and geographical coverage necessary for global scalability, while keeping patient data secure and localized where required. Bringing precision and speed together in a regulated, safe way is what allows us to scale.”

Q: What kind of feedback do you hear from customers about Axial3D?

Roger: “One of the most gratifying things is that customers consistently recognize the step change our technology provides, in terms of the consistent super high quality, the breadth of planning functionality on a single platform, the time to surgeon/patient that we enable and most importantly, how they enjoy working with our tea,=m. In my entire career growing software companies, I’ve never had such a consistent positive response. People genuinely say our technology is by far and away the best they’ve evaluated, and that recognition is hugely motivating for our team.”

Q: What drives and inspires you in your role as CEO at Axial3D?

Roger: “I’m driven every day by the mission to transform healthcare globally by democratising the use of 3D, whether that be for pre or intra operative care. Everything we do has the potential to directly impact a patient’s outcome, and that responsibility is incredibly inspiring. I often think about healthcare pioneers like Frank Pantridge who also was from Northern Ireland, who invented the portable defibrillator, a device that fundamentally changed healthcare worldwide. That’s the kind of transformative impact we aim for with 3D-enabled diagnostics, planning, and treatment.”

Q: Any final message as we close out the year?

Roger: “I’m just so grateful for our team, our partners, and our customers. Every day we’re reminded that what we do matters and working with the very best and the most driven people is what drives success. That’s what keeps us moving forward, innovating, and striving to make healthcare more precise, more personalized, and more accessible for everyone.”