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The first Imperial College-RCA Triangle Project featured the research and development of three new laparoscopic instruments. The project owes its genesis to surgeon-in-training Herbert Arnarsson, a PhD research student at Imperial’s Wolfson Surgical Technology Laboratory as well as at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London. Arnarsson was encouraged by his head of department, Professor Sir Ara Darzi, to patent his innovative ideas on instrument research and development.
Arnarsson explains: “Soon after I started looking at patent options I was contacted by Tony Hickson who heads up Medical and Life Sciences at Imperial College Innovations. We chose two ideas which I assigned to them and the ball started rolling”.
After filing for provisional patents was complete, Tony Hickson contacted the RCA for assistance with design and rapid prototyping. He explains: “Since graduate RCA industrial design engineers already had experience in the design of surgical instruments, this seemed to present an ideal way of matching innovative ideas with design expertise at the highest level.” Subsequently, MBAs from the Tanaka Business School undertook a commercial viability survey commissioned by Tony Hickson.
The design team focused on turning Arnarsson’s concepts into fully developed, user-friendly tools, and adding considerably to the resulting intellectual property. As a result, the project delivered three innovative products: the PortPlacer™ to support the introduction of laparoscopic tools into the patient’s abdomen, a port cleaner to clear visual pathways during this type of surgery, and a Smart Bougie which expands to support specific surgical procedures in relation to internal organs.
The PortPlacer™ was nominated for the best innovation to improve patient safety in the Medical Innovation Awards 2005.
