Dr. Margherita Cadeddu
(left), assistant professor in the Department of
Surgery, works with McMaster medical resident Dr.
Adam Power (right) as he experiments with a surgical
instrument he invented and has tested as part of
his research program.
Photo: Courtesy of McMaster
University |
A pair of residents has won prize
money — and potentially, investor cash — for
a new surgical device they developed in Canada.
Dr Adam Power is on leave from
McMaster to obtain a master's degree in bioscience enterprise
from Cambridge University. His invention is a device
that lifts the abdominal wall to facilitate an experimental,
"scarless" surgery technique called Natural Orifice
Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES). He and his
twin brother Nicholas, a urology resident at Dalhousie,
came up with the idea during their last year of medical
school.
NEW
FRONTIER
NOTES is a minimally invasive, emerging surgical technique.
Just as laparoscopy revolutionized surgery in the 80s
and 90s, NOTES aims to take things a step further by
doing away with the external incision entirely. Instead,
abdominal procedures like appendix or gall bladder removals
are performed through an internal incision in the stomach
or colon via an endoscope passed through a natural orifice
like the mouth or anus. This way, there's no external
scarring at all, allowing for even quicker healing times
and shorter hospital stays.
As with laparoscopy, however, NOTES
requires the abdominal cavity to be inflated with carbon
dioxide gas. This leaves abdominal walls prone to collapse
on the operative site, lengthens and complicates surgery,
and increases post-operative pain.
"[My invention] collapses into
a compact form and attaches to a standard endoscope.
Once the endoscope enters the abdominal cavity, the
instrument is deployed into its expandable form. Then,
through our proprietary technology, it lifts the abdominal
walls, without the use of gas, providing excellent exposure
for the procedure," Dr Power says of his as-yet-unnamed
prototype, nicknamed the "Power Tool" by his Cambridge
classmates.
At this point, NOTES is more theoretical
than practical. In the US, it has been used both diagnostically
and therapeutically in animal models, and surgeons in
India have published reports on its use in both transoral
and transgastric appendectomies. "The allure of scarless
operations is hard for patients and physicians to ignore
and research continues globally," Dr Power says. "There
are many barriers to overcome before the first human
trials in NOTES will even begin. Our product addresses
one of these barriers and will hopefully help facilitate
the safe introduction of the procedure into humans."
GUTS
AND GLORY
Dr Power's start-up company, Rem Rom Medical Devices
— through which he owns the patents to the instrument
— was named one of two runner-ups in an elite business
idea challenge between Cambridge and Oxford University
students. The competition was presided over by a panel
of eminent businesspeople that included multi-millionaire
Peter Jones, best known as a panelist on the hit reality
TV shows Dragon's Den in the UK and American Inventor
in the US. The event was reported by CNN and highlights
will be aired on an upcoming British reality TV show,
Tycoon.
To date, Dr Power's invention has
won him £3,500 (about $8,000CAD) and is vying
for another �15,000 (just over $34,000CAD) in the next
round of competition. Rem Rom was also recently named
as a finalist to "Where Angels May Dare," an event where
Dr Power and his teammates will have a chance to pitch
the invention to venture capitalists.
The success has been a bit overwhelming,
but well deserved for the 29-year-old New Brunswick
native. "It feels a bit odd to be gaining recognition
for a business idea as someone in the medical field.
I know how 'industry' is sometimes viewed by physicians.
But I think there's room for more awareness about the
industries that help us to treat our patients," he says.
Ultimately, he hopes to partner
with a larger medical device company, taking advantage
of established manufacturing and distribution capabilities
to put his invention in the hands of surgeons just as
NOTES enters the clinical trial phase. "When I started
medicine, I became drawn to the practical side of things,
which is why I decided to go into general surgery. Surgical
device innovation was a natural progression," Dr Power
says. "But after doing my initial prototype research,
I soon realized that coming up with an idea is only
a small part of the process."
Dr Power plans to return to McMaster
in August to complete the three remaining years of his
residency. He will continue to refine his invention,
however, while his partners in the UK concentrate on
getting the necessary funding — which he estimates
at about �50,000 (just under $115,000CAD).
For more information on NOTES,
visit the Natural Orifice Surgery Consortium for Assessment
and Research's website at www.noscar.org.
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