Sterile field in a backpack
After Dr. Debbie Lin Teodorescu treated some of the people injured in the Boston Marathon bombing, she thought about how the proximity to a sterile operating room within the “golden hour” between a traumatic injury and treatment for that injury can save lives and prevent infections. She also thought about how creating and maintaining a sterile OR in a field hospital and in some areas of developing countries can be nearly impossible.Then a student at Harvard Medical School, Teodorescu came up with a solution. SurgiBox is an inflatable, portable sterile field that fits in a backpack. Designed to keep patients and providers safe from surgical site infections, SurgiBox creates a sterile field around the patient, with sleeve-like arm openings for surgical staff. She likens it to a clear bubble sealed against the patient’s skin.
Teodorescu is a practicing physician who also was trained as an engineer. She continues to serve as project lead for SurgiBox and president of its board of directors.
“By shifting our perspective, we can bring safe surgery within the golden hour anytime and anyplace that it’s needed,” Teodorescu said in a TEDMED 2018 Hive Talk video recently posted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s D-Lab.