High-quality, low-cost, disposable surgical tools

Single-use tools and kits reduce logistics and sterilisation overheads, lower the risk of patient infection, improve reliability and help to increase reimbursement transparency.

Single-use tools must, of course, also be manufacturable at much lower cost than reusable products, and achieving low cost was an important motivation for the development of the new applicator.

Laparoscopic surgery is a complex, ergonomically-demanding activity. Therefore, the applicator also had to provide comfortable body positioning, low operating forces, easy manipulation and a simple user interface. To achieve all of this, our human factors team researched the setting and created a model surgery to select and refine the applicator ergonomics.

The Filshie Clip is the most reliable method of surgical sterilisation available and the applicator could not compromise this reliability. The mechanism had to close the clip accurately every time without breaking or jamming. Using mathematical models to predict reliability in the light of manufacturing tolerances, we were able to achieve zero-defect performance by design.

Concept selection is pivotal to both the cost and reliability of a product. Therefore, we constructed cost and reliability models at the concept phase, allowing us to select the cheapest concept, confident that it would still perform as required.

The combination of technical performance, ergonomic design, and low cost achieved meant that Sterishot II was well received by surgeons and continues to be the preferred applicator for the Filshie Clip.