The Operating Theatre Journal - Journal - Page 24
SurgiBox: Ukraine’s SurgiBox Project Has Been Successfully
Demonstrating Safe Surgery to Patients Around the World
SurgiBox, a low-resource medical equipment
company funded by MIT D Lab, has developed
a portable device that doctors may use to
create safe operating environments in lowresource environments. The whole thing fits in
a backpack and can be set up in minutes.
SurgiBox, a nonprofit based in the
Massachusetts Department of Energy, has
developed a portable equipment that doctors
may use to create sterilized operating
conditions where they are needed the most.
SurgiBox, a startup that is collaborating with
MIT’s D-Lab, has developed a portable surgery
system that allows safe surgical access in
locations without sterilized operating rooms, a
technique that was successfully demonstrated
during a humanitarian mission to Ukraine.
Two vans with doctors and medical supplies
crossed the Polish border into Ukraine in
March as part of a humanitarian mission.
Both vans carried traditional medical supplies
the country desperately needs of, such as
tourniquets, bandages, and suture kits.
One van also carried 50 parts of an entirely
new system that allows surgeons to perform
surgery safely in locations without operating
rooms.
“It was such a friendly and welcoming
environment,” says the mother-of-the-pearl at
the conclusion of the project. “If you’re ever
interested in something or want to exchange
ideas around, we’re your people,” she says.
SurgiBox, a business that has worked closely
with MIT D-Lab for more than a decade,
believes they may work far beyond warzones.
Healthcare operations can be disrupted just
when they need to be.
SurgiBox was born shortly after she went to
work, raving about how difficult it was to
perform surgery safely in so many parts of the
world.
The SurgiBox system includes a bubble with
armholes facing upward, a module that filters
and controls airflow, and a battery. The entire
thing fits inside a backpack and can be set up
in as little as five minutes.
“I thought, ‘We’re able to protect our
experiments wherever we need using glove
boxes,’ and so why should we not do the same
thing for patients? But the same principle
holds: You can provide patient protection
when you need it.”
Debbie Teodorescu, the founder of SurgiBox,
and an affiliated researcher at MIT D-Lab,
says, “In this day and age, you can’t have the
same doctors and outstanding abilities.”
SurgiBox’s team flew to Poland, waited in a
long line at the Ukrainian border, and drove
for several hours into Kyiv, where they fought
air raid warnings at all hours while instructing
doctors on how to use the system.
The journey was long and gave SurgiBox’s
staff a newfound appreciation for Ukrainian
daily hardships. In many ways, it was also the
culmination of a far longer journey that began
with an idea Teodorescu had back in 2009.
Michael Samotowka MD (HCA Healthcare),
Emanuele Lagazzi MD (MGH) and Surgibox cofounder Mike Teodorescu
Teodorescu was a student at Harvard
University when she first became interested in
D-Lab as part of a research project in 2009.
Teodorescu joined the faculty research
committee at the time of her death in 2020,
and taught the course 2.722J (D-Lab: Design)
and 2.729 (Design for Scale). SurgiBox’s chief
operating officer is also a former D-Lab
student, Macauley Kenney SM ‘16.
“D-Lab is a fantastic place,” says SurgiBox
CEO and co-founder Mike Teodorescu, who
met Debbie while studying at Harvard and
worked at D-Lab as a visiting scholar for two
years. “They’re really welcoming,” he says. “If
you’re working on something to improve lives
for people and tackling a major humanitarian
issue, they’ll welcome you.”
The final product designed by SurgiBox’s
team is a compact and lightweight package
that mimics the environment of an operating
theatre.
“Surgeons don’t want to alter their workflow,”
Debbie Teodorescu says. “They don’t want to
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deal with things that increase this cognitive
burden.” We’re preserving their workflow by
saying, “You’re going to treat the patient the
way you’d treat them for surgery anyway.”
The Ukraine donation last month was one
of several that SurgiBox has given to the
country. After the first, the Ukraine Operation
Command South wrote a letter to the company
expressing its gratitude for saving 31 lives and
requesting further funding. SurgiBox’s team
realized that civilian doctors in Ukraine were
also using the system for other situations, such
as childbirth and appendicitis.
Mike Teodorescu traveled to Kyiv with Michael
Samotowka, a surgeon with MedGlobal and HCA
Florida Healthcare, and Emanuele Lagazzi,
a clinical research fellow at Massachusetts
General Hospital, who both had previously
traveled to Ukraine for assistance missions.
Mike Teodorescu wants to express my
gratitude to [Samotowka and Lagazzi] for their
ongoing humanitarian efforts, as well as credit
humanitarian organizations like MedGlobal,
which provide critical needed assistance to
disaster-affected areas.
SurgiBox is now ramping up its production
of its systems in preparation for its second
medical device certification from the
European Union and a public product launch
across the 28-country bloc this summer. The
first full production batch will be donated to
Doctors Without Borders.
SurgiBox’s team believes the system might be
utilized to perform mobile surgeries on patient
bedsides if patients are elderly or particularly
susceptible to infection in the long run.
A broadening, they consider the system to be
an inexpensive alternative to operating rooms
for many procedures.
Mike Teodorescu believes SurgiBox can be
used to lower health care costs and give
physicians and patients greater flexibility.
Having some of that at a patient’s bedside
would be tremendously beneficial.
Source: list23 - AARON ROTTENBERG
24
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