News & Events: Surgical Innovations

UCSF Surgical Innovations and San Francisco-based medical device developer TheraNova have formed a partnership that will allow for co-development of medical device technologies between them. UCSF innovators will now have a streamlined mechanism to collaborate with TheraNova engineers, which will help speed commercialization of products. The agreement formalizes a longstanding collaborative relationship between Surgical Innovations and TheraNova, providing access to the respective expertise and capabilities of each group, notably: The partnership agreement establishes mechanisms for [...]

On May 17, the Second Annual UCSF Engineering for Children's Health Symposium was held at Mission Bay Conference Center. Over one hundred clinicians, engineers, scientists, administrators, industry professionals, and government partners gathered to discuss groundbreaking research and developing technologies in pediatric medicine. The event commenced with opening remarks by Hanmin Lee, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief of the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals and Professor and Chief of the UCSF Division of Pediatric Surgery, along with Bertram Lubin, MD, Associate Dean of Children's Health at UCSF, [...]

Results from the first-in-human clinical trial of a magnetic compression anastomosis device known as "Magnamosis" were recently reported on in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.  The study, led by Principal Investigator Michael Harrison, MD, is a prospective, single-center, first-in-human pilot clinical trial to evaluate the feasibility and safety of creating an intestinal anastomosis using the Magnamosis device. Magnetic compression anastomosis (magnamosis) uses a pair of self-centering magnetic "Harrison Rings" to create an intestinal anastomosis without sutures or [...]

From developing sensors to detect pressure ulcers to conducting pre-clinical studies for novel magnetic therapies, Isabelle Chumfong, MEng, MD, and Claire Graves, MD took the unconventional route during their research years, electing to pursue cutting-edge research through the Innovation Pathway, one of five such pathways open to surgery and visiting residents during their research years.  The purpose of the resident research program is to encourage trainees to hone their skills as physician-scientists by asking critical questions and gaining the expertise needed to pursue answers to them. [...]

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) has awarded the UCSF Department of Surgery a five-year interdisciplinary R25 research education grant for its Biodevice Innovation Training Program. The grant will fund up to two surgical residents each year with an interest in pursuing translational medicine, medical device development, and entrepreneurship during their dedicated research years. The Biodevice Innovation Training Program is led by Professors Hanmin Lee, MD, and Shuvo Roy, PhD, who are also co-directors of the Surgical Innovations Program. Research mentors [...]

On January 12, clinicians, engineers, scientists, and administrators from UCSF, UC Berkeley. UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, and Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) convened at the Mission Bay campus for the inaugural Engineering for Children's Health Symposium. The event, reported in UCSF News, marked the launch of a collaborative effort dedicated to developing innovative technological solutions to improve patient safety, eliminate health disparities, cure disease, and end disability for children. UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood and UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks [...]

The UCSF Department of Surgery's longstanding partnership with engineers to invent new medical technologies in response to patient needs was featured in a recent story by UC Berkeley journalism student Alex Orlando. The article profiles Richard Fechter, Principal Development Engineer at UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, and long-time collaborator of Michael R. Harrison, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Surgery at UCSF, who pioneered the field of fetal surgery in the 1980s.  As medical technology continues to cross the threshold into the 21st century, clinical engineers [...]

Pediatric surgeon Michael R. Harrison, M.D. and UC Berkeley engineer Phillip Messersmith, Ph.D. are collaborating on an NIH-Funded research project to improve glues used in fetal surgery procedures, notably those used to treat twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. Dr. Harrision, widely acknolwedged as the "father of fetal surgery", is Director Emeritus of the Fetal Treatment Center and leads the research of the Harrison Lab. The full story was recently reported in UC Berkeley News. UC Berkeley engineer Phillip Messersmith is happy to be learning lessons from a lowly mollusk, with the [...]

KQED Science for Personalized Medicine reports on a multitude of new sensor technologies that are being used to monitor medical issues, which would otherwise be time-consuming for hospital staff to manage. Hanmin Lee, M.D., Professor and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery at UCSF as well as Medical Director of Surgical Innovations was interviewed for the article, offering his insights about the huge potential of the nascent field. "I firmly believe that the next 50 years are going to be the stunning revolution of health," says Hanmin Lee, professor of surgery and director of the [...]

UCSF News reports on the Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF which prepares inventors to launch start-ups and supports innovators seeking to commercialize life-changing inventions. Hobart W. Harris, M.D., M.P.H., Professor and Chief of the Division of General Surgery, founder of Vitruvian Medical Devices, and a pioneer in the management and repair of complex ventral (incisional) hernias, extols the benefits of the Center's "Lean LaunchPad" course in the development of his company.  Hobart Harris, MD, who has served as chief of general surgery at UCSF for the past 13 years, believes the Lean [...]

The NHLBI Vascular Interventions/Innovations and Therapeutic Advances (VITA) Program has awarded Michael S. Conte, M.D., Professor & Chief of the Division of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery, a translational research grant to study the problem of vascular injury and develop prototype medical drugs and devices that effectively prevent restenosis, reduce vascular scarring, and improve vascular surgical outcomes. The grant is a collaboration between the Conte Lab and Tejal Desai, Ph.D., Director of the Therapeutic Microtechnology And Nanotechnology Laboratory and Chair of Bioengineering [...]

The pioneering work of Timothy Chuter, M.D., a Professor of Vascular Surgery at UCSF, was recently profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle. The story cited his major accomplishments and important discoveries in the field:  The aortic aneurysms and areas he's worked on are preventing people from dying from ruptured aneurysms," said Dr. Peter Lawrence, president of the Society of Vascular Surgery, which honored Chuter in 2008. "It's not that often that somebody comes along and solves a problem or begins the process of solving a problem that has a huge, dramatic impact on health [...]