MEDICAL DEVICE INNOVATION - Medical Device Daily

MEDICAL DEVICE INNOVATION 2010
US Endoscopy launches spongy
device for ERCP procedures
By AMANDA PEDERSEN
Medical Device Daily Staff Writer
It’s not always about bells and whistles.
Sometimes the most useful medical devices are simple
products developed in response to clinicians’ needs. Such
is the case with the Boost, a head-stabilizing device from
US Endoscopy (Mentor, Ohio) designed to hold a patient’s
head still during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
(ERCP).
It’s not a high-tech device like some of the other tools
used by gastroenterologists, but US Endoscopy says it has
never found a bigger unmet need than the one the spongy
Boost fills.
“Nothing has been built for this purpose,” said Tamara
Struk, a senior product manager at US Endoscopy.
Struk told Medical Device Daily that prior to the Boost
becoming available in July, clinicians used rolled up towels,
sheets, pillows, or some combination of those items to stabilize
the patient’s head during an ERCP – a multiple-hour
procedure that uses endoscopes that slide into the
patient’s body to determine problems in the liver, gallbladder,
bile ducts or pancreas. She called these methods of stabilizing
the patient’s head “suboptimal,” because the “stability
of the head” during an ERCP is “extremely important.”
The company estimates that at least 500,000 ERCPs are
performed each year. During the procedure, patients lay
face down or on their sides. The procedure can discover
gallstones, internal leaks or cancer, among other things, US
Endoscopy said.
The Boost is made of polyether polyurethane, is
designed for the “vast majority” of head sizes and should
hold its shape for four hours, according to the company.
The hole keeps there from being constant pressure on the
ear. One of the challenges in designing the device was creating
a cushion that could support patients’ heads for the
length of a procedure.
US Endoscopy officially launched the Boost in July, following
a limited release of the product to get customer
feedback. “Our feedback has been positive, particularly
from nurses and anesthesiologists . . . the people who typically
monitor the patients [during the ERCP] are the nurse
or anesthesiologist,” Struk said.
The biggest challenge US Endoscopy encountered
while developing the Boost, Struk said, was coming up with
a product that would fit most head sizes.
“Obviously there are a variety of sizes of people in the
hospital and a variety of sizes of heads,” Struk said.
Ultimately what the company came up with, she said, is
what they consider a “one size fits most” device.
Struk said the company spent about a year and a half
developing the Boost.
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“US Endoscopy really is a company that’s founded on
looking at different customer needs out in the market place
and delivering on those needs . . . we really like to get ideas
directly from physicians, nurses and technicians and be
able to meet those needs,” Struk told MDD.
US Endoscopy, a private company, also makes other
accessories for the GI endoscopy market, including
retrieval devices.
(This story originally appeared in the Aug. 17, 2009, edition
of Medical Device Daily)
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