A firsthand understanding of the problems and risks inherent in tracking surgical disposables during operative cases gave rise to an idea that resulted in the RF Surgical™ Detection System.
Dr. Jeffrey Port
One of the founders and Chairman of RF Surgical Systems, Dr. Jeffrey Port, is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College and an Attending Surgeon within the Division of Thoracic Surgery at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center.
During his extensive surgical training at NYU and Bellevue Medical Centers, Dr. Port faced numerous operative cases where sponge counts were incorrect. He witnessed the frustrating, costly and time-consuming events that followed as the OR staff worked to locate missing sponges and reconcile surgical counts.
His inspiration came during a particularly long trauma case. While nurses were digging through mounds of used sponges and then waiting for hospital personnel to roll in an x-ray machine to image the patient, Dr. Port began to formulate his solution for improving the perioperative management of surgical disposables.
His approach would involve developing a small inexpensive tag that could be inconspicuously attached to surgical gauze, sponges and towels. The tag would be detected by a sterile disposable scanning wand. The system would have to be easy to use with a highly accurate reading depth and range, even when scanning patients of large body mass.
Dr. Port collaborated on the project with William Blair, an electrical engineer, who is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of RF Surgical Systems. Over the next ten years, they worked together to develop one of the biggest breakthroughs in OR safety—a revolutionary detection system that would alert the OR team of the presence of any surgical sponges unintentionally left in patients undergoing surgery.
Rather than using standard RFID chips which they felt had limitations due to size and cost, they pursued a hybrid RF platform and passive micro tag. The advantage of such a system allows the technology to be cost-effectively applied to all types of surgical disposables including those used in minimally invasive procedures. With an exceptionally accurate sponge detection rate and range, the RF Surgical Detection System brings an added layer of patient safety to the OR.
The advanced technologies used in the RF Surgical Detection System are protected by U.S. patents. Regulatory clearance to market the system was granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November of 2006.