Development of an inexpensive, real-time blood vessel detection system for minimally invasive surgery

Currently, there are more than 42,000 incidents of excessive bleeding in the United States each year caused by unintentional surgical cuts. These incidents result in patient injury, protracted hospital stays, and patient mortality in 20 percent of cases. In addition, United States hospitals incur $8.6 billion in additional costs due to excessive intraoperative bleeding. Integrating SafeSnips into surgical cutting tools will facilitate surgeons’ real-time detection of the presence and size of blood vessels before such unintentional cuts are made. Born out of the Northwestern University’s NUvention Medical Innovation program, a nationally renowned graduate course, the SafeSnips team is comprised of students from the medical and engineering schools. The team is mentored by Michael Marasco, the Director of the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northwestern, who has extensive entrepreneurial experience. The SafeSnips technology has been fostered and refined through the advisement of industrial and academic leaders. In addition, a provisional patent application for the technology has been filed and is fully owned by the company. The SafeSnips team is committed to moving their technology to the operating room to improve surgical outcomes.