As a pilot and physician, Titan Medical's (TSXV:TMD) founder has long believed flight simulator giant CAE Inc. (TSX:CAE) could help him develop a unique cockpit for robotic surgeries.

"I always saw the analogies between what we do as physicians and what pilots need, especially in the area of training and simulation," Reiza Rayman said in an interview from London, Ont.

For more than 18 months, he has been talking with Montreal-based CAE about helping to develop the surgical consoles that are the "brains" of the device.

Rayman said the fast processing and real-time connections that allow fighter pilots to train will pave the way for a similar opportunity for surgeons.

The Toronto-based company announced Tuesday that it will partner with CAE's health care subsidiary to develop a robotic platform capable of performing surgery from a distance and training surgeons by simulation.

Under the terms of the deal, CAE has the option to be the exclusive training provider for the Amadeus robotic surgery system.

"This agreement marks an innovative and significant step for CAE Healthcare as we will be applying our simulation and modelling expertise to help analyse, research, and develop the world's next generation robotic surgery platform," said CAE Healthcare president, Guillaume Herve.

Titan said the agreement will help it commercialize the Amadeus project as it works towards overcoming the current limitations of robotic surgery.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Rayman said there's a void in simulation training for surgeons.

"We see CAE's facilities and their way of providing training as a real valuable solution to fill that gap."

Union Securities analyst Ilya Shubin sees lots of financial rewards for both companies.

For CAE, Titan will be the health care division's first major client and allow them to become exclusive trainers for robotic surgery.

"It could be a substantial amount of money and moving forward this puts them at the forefront of training for virtual surgery which is right now pretty much a brand new area," he said in an interview.

Shubin said the partnership makes sense because they're both involved in potentially dangerous activities requiring a high level of safety and training.

Simulation training can help to reduce the high costs of practising in real life experiences and help to train on new surgical procedures.

Titan hopes to wrestle away some market share by offering new surgical procedures to the abdomen and chest. Intuitive Surgical primarily targets prostate and gynecological surgeries, but doesn't have long-distance capabilities.

CAE and Titan hope to have the consoles completed within the next 12 to 14 months. Clinical trials would start in early 2012, followed by regulatory approval.

CAE spokeswoman Nathalie Bourque said it's an exciting opportunity to further the company's diversification strategy by developing a "fifth leg" to its civil and military products and training sectors.

About 15 of the CAE's 6,500 employees are working for the health care subsidiary in Montreal. The company expects to invest $274 million over seven year on research and development. The Quebec government has agreed to provide up to $100 million in loans, repayable by royalties.

While the company is taking "intelligent steps" to advance its health care subsidiary, it remains a very small part of CAE's overall business.

"We hope to build a new business out of health care, but we're not putting all the energies on this. Our people are still very focused on military, defence, and on the civil aircraft business," she added.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, CAE's shares closed up one cent at $8.57. Titan's shares were unchanged.