Spectrum Health Innovations has signed a licensing agreement with Min-Bio, LLC, of Lowell, Mich. to manufacture a new trauma surgery basin that is a cut above existing designs.
Trauma surgery basins are routinely used to capture organic waste material, tissue and bodily fluids during wound treatment and surgical procedures.
The Angel Ortho Basin, named after Spectrum Health surgical technician and designer Angel Dominguez, is a portable, recyclable polypropylene device that makes irrigation and management of fluids more efficient and effective. Its design enables ease of use and improved comfort for patients during wound care procedures of the extremities.
The device is scheduled for limited market release in mid-2015.
"The Angel Ortho Basin is an excellent example of a relatively simple design change that can vastly improve an existing product type," said Min-Bio CEO Louis Weijers. "There is an enormous potential market for this type of device."
A Level I trauma center like Spectrum Health might use as many as 50,000 trauma basins in one year. They are routinely used in operating rooms, emergency departments, wound care centers and urgent care facilities around the world-- any place where patients are treated for surgical procedures.
Weijers said he believes that market acceptance depends on getting the device into the hands of key decision makers who will appreciate the device's distinct design.
"Our goal is not to establish a huge manufacturing concern, but to get this product up and running so that someone will pick it up who has the ability to do it large scale," Weijers said.
Angel Dominguez, a Spectrum Health surgical technician, said that for many years he wondered why the only tool available to capture fluids and tissue during irrigation and debridement of extremity wounds was a seven quart, round, hard plastic basin.
Dominguez said that existing designs often caused the patient's arm or leg to hyperextend during the procedure. At times the pressure placed on the patient's limb by the edges of the basin left noticeable marks and raised the potential for blood vessels and nerve bundles to be constricted. Furthermore, the existing basins did nothing to protect the surgical team from any splash back or to manage the irrigation fluid.
"I saw how ineffective it was at protecting the patient and staff and I started thinking about a solution like cutting out a portion of the basin's rim," Dominguez said. "So I started experimenting and cutting up the rims of basins and padding them with towels to better protect the patient. It's amazing how a good idea can actually be so simple."
With the resources and expertise of the Spectrum Health Innovations team behind him, Dominguez's idea evolved into a more effective trauma basin that makes irrigation and management of fluids more efficient and effective.
The Spectrum Health Innovations team brought an innovative concept-to-use project management mindset to the project, encompassing factors of engineering, design, cost, manufacturing, and marketing.
"Angel Dominguez is a great example of Spectrum Health's 20,000 plus employees seeking new and innovative ways to solve a variety of health care issues," said Spectrum Health Innovations senior director Brent Mulder, PhD. "We work with them to approach challenges like an entrepreneur with a strong desire to see their idea come to life."
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