Thinking out of the box - Portable OR

Dr. Seyi Oyesola points out that common, survivable ailments and injuries -- burns, trauma, heart attacks -- kill thousands of Africans each year because basic medical care can be so hard to get. Having spent his early medical career in Africa, he understands the difficulties faced in providing care in under-developed ares.

To help bring surgical care to every region of the continent, Oyesola co-developed CompactOR, or the "Hospital in a Box": a portable medical system that contains anesthetic and surgical equipment. It consists of a  pop-up, portable, solar-powered OR for off-grid medicine in Africa and elsewhere.It contains anaesthetic equipment, a defibrillator, a burns unit, plaster-making facilities, surgical equipment and a built-in operating table. It even comes with its own tent to create an ad hoc field hospital..The operating suite is light enough to be dropped into inaccessible zones by helicopter, and can be powered by solar panels.The system is powered by a truck battery, and is made to be readily recharged via solar panel. The basic kit, minus battery, costs about £14,000, or roughly US$25,000; additional modules provide support for an extensive selection of drugs and more specialized medical treatments (including orthopedic surgery).

Although the Hospital-in-a-Box may save lives, Oyesola reminds us that with meager pay and inadequate facilities, there is still little incentive for medical professionals to remain in Africa. Proper education and technical training could pave the way for more, and more capable, new physicians to learn and stay in Africa -- and start the healing of the continent.

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Using technology in medicine.

A new advanced facility at the University of Minnesota is harnessing big ideas for medical devices.


It's called the Medical Devices Center.


"I don't think there's any place across the country in an academic setting with this kind of facility," said Art Erdman, director of the Medical Devices Center.


Located on the East Bank, the center is a place for engineers and medical professionals to come together and capture the ideas of graduate students often lost when they graduate and move on. "[Ideas] are lost all the time," Erdman noted.



At the center, medical device prototypes from the simple to the complex can be mocked up faster than the weeks it can take if a design has to be made off site. Sometimes prototypes can be finished in a day.


One prototype currently on display that was created at the university is a device that would conduct radial breast compression for MRI's, potentially replacing the bilateral breast compression plates that are currently used.


In addition to prototype manufacturing and providing facilities to test devices on tissue, the center also has new 3D cameras that will be used in about 40 operating rooms around campus.


These cameras will allow groups of engineering students to sit in on surgeries remotely so they can help medical experts solve problems.


Surgeons will also be able to see the students on monitors in the OR and communicate with them during surgery.


"Right now you're lucky if you can get into a surgery suite as an engineer. [They] maybe allow one to two people at a time," engineering graduate student Nathan Knutson said. "So to be able to project those surgeries here and have the prototyping equipment to sit down and start solving the surgeon's problems with their devices and handheld manipulators we can really come across with some great innovations and
breakthroughs."


Not only will graduate students be able to advance their ideas more easily, the center has also hired a team of engineering and medical experts well established in their fields to brainstorm ideas.


And a new fellows program will bring together four experts this fall.


"We put them in a think tank and for one year they seek out relevant clinical needs," Fellows program director Marie Johnson said. "So they actually put on scrubs and go over to the OR's, sit in the clinics, watch rehab, participate in all aspects of medical care and they ask stupid questions."


Those stupid questions though, could lead to the next big idea.


Erdman said harnessing these ideas will be good for the University of Minnesota, and potentially great for the state.


"Arguably, this is the center in the United States for medical devices, certainly in cardiology and urology, so how do we sustain that?" he asked. "It's very important for the economy of the state."


Read it all at:
University of Minnesota Opens New Medical Devices Center - MPO Magazine

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