International Partner Search

Innovation & Technology Request

Looking for new solutions for an affordable and mobile surgical instrument set for caesarean delivery, laparotomy and open fracture treatment.

Country of Origin: Netherlands
Reference Number: TRNL20190328002
Publication Date: 11 April 2019

Summary

A not for profit company is an incubator for a Dutch medical university and other universities worldwide. It builds the next generation learning platform for new ways of surgical training & teaching. They aim to build a simpler and cheaper surgical instrument set for caesarean delivery, laparotomy and open fracture treatment with partners within the frame of a technical cooperation agreement.
This request is part of an open innovation challenge.

Description

The Dutch SME is a not for profit company which is fully owned by a medical university in The Netherlands and is an incubator for this university, other universities in the Netherlands, in Europe and far beyond.

The SME is building the next generation learning platform to generate, apply and spread the knowledge about new ways of surgical learning, training & teaching - making a difference for all people, near and far, across all borders.

One of their goals is to save lives by joining forces with partners to build the ultimate surgical instrument set for caesarean delivery, laparotomy and open fracture treatment.



Worldwide, 5 billion people have no access to basic surgical healthcare. This means that every minute 271 lifesaving and disability preventing operations are not performed due to a lack of surgeons, anaesthesiologists and due to a lack of the right tools. The global burden of surgically treatable conditions is greater than that of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

The SME aims to create an affordable and mobile surgical learning environment that can be implemented anywhere in the world. All organizations that want to contribute to this mission are welcome to join the initiative. The goal is to save lives by joining forces with partners to build the ultimate surgical instrument set called the ‘Bellwether Surgery Set’, accompanied by complete lifecycle management.



There are a lot of challenges were the organisation needs help. First of all: normal surgery kits are extremely expensive, there is a need to innovate smarter cheaper instruments (sets) or materials that do the job. Second of all, when there is a kit, it needs to be sterilized/cleaned smartly in rural areas, it needs to be serviced, parts needs to be tracked and lost parts need to be easily replaced. 

In order to pick the right instruments for the set, the SME choose three of the fifteen essential surgeries that were stated in the Declaration on Essential Surgical Care. These three are called the Bellwether procedures: caesarean delivery, laparotomy and open fracture treatment. If a hospital can perform these three they most likely can perform a broad range of essential procedures. The organisation wants to build one set with these three kits.



Medical technology is a €500+ billion global market but it tends to only make healthcare instruments more complex and expensive. 

The organisation is looking for partners to team up with in order to make basic surgical instruments simpler and cheaper: saving lives ánd showing the industry that in order to make a difference one needs to innovate at the foundation of care. 

Cooperation is envisioned within the frame of a technical cooperation agreement.



IMPORTANT: This Technology Request refers to an innovation challenge published on the internet platform. If an organization expresses interest before closing date, it will be guided towards this open innovation platform. After registration participants can browse free through other submissions and engage in discussions. All submissions will get feedback by the company on this open platform. The challenge closes on May 27th, 2019. Mind that posts on this platform are not confidential.

Beside open discussions on the platform, sharing of confidential information will be made possible on demand. After that, the firm will select the SME's with whom they would like to cooperate in the development of a solution. Once the challenge is closed, Expressions of Interest for this technology request will be treated in the traditional way.

Expertise sought

What the organisation needs is material experts, designing expertise, expertise on product lifecycle management, innovative cleaning and smart (global) distribution.

Stage Of Development Comment

Everything from concept, prototype available for demonstration, field tested / evaluated, available for demonstration to already on the market will be considered.

Requested partner

Type of partners: 

Companies or research centres with material expertise, designing expertise, expertise on product lifecycle management, innovative cleaning and smart (global) distribution.



Role of partners:

Contributing in the joint development of simpler and cheaper basic surgical instruments