CSTAR launchpad for advanced medical device

Print

By Paul Mayne
Thursday, September 24, 2009
A new anesthesia delivery method, expected to revolutionize health care, plans to use Western-based CSTAR (Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics) as a launching pad in entering the North American market.
 
 
Top anesthesiologists from across North America visited the Western-based Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) facility to check out a revolutionary new German-developed tool for delivering anesthesia. As a launching pad for the new tool, CSTAR could become a training centre if the new technology catches on and obtrains regulatory approval.
 
If the new tool catches on, CSTAR could become home for a North American training facility and, potentially, London would be in the running for a new manufacturing facility.
 
A two-day focus group brought together top anesthesiologists from Harvard, Philadelphia, Chicago, Vancouver, Edmonton and other locations, so developers of the equipment could obtain feedback from those on the frontline.
 
CSTAR is a collaborative research and education program of Western, London Health Sciences Centre, Lawson Health Research Institute and St. Joseph’s Health Care.
 
The Zeus, made by German-based Dräger Medical Inc. and already in use in Europe and Asia, would deliver a greater degree of integration and automation, making it easier for anesthetists to concentrate on the patient – neonatal through adult.
 
CSTAR director John Parker says this closed-loop method of anesthesia delivery is what is referred to as disruptive technology.
 
“It’s a term used in any high-tech industry to describe something that fundamentally changes the way things are done,” he says. “This technology does have the potential to fundamentally change, and many would argue improve, the quality of care provided to patients that require anesthesia.”
 
Parker says the machine can follow a patient around the hospital.
 
“The balance of patients have healthy lungs and require a certain kind of ventilation, but if that patient becomes very sick, which can often happen in complex surgeries, and their lungs become injured, they require a different kind of ventilation to accommodate the transformation of their lungs and this machine can do that,” he says. “It can adjust itself to whatever the ventilation requirements of the patient are, and that is what is unique about it.”
 
Parker adds through CSTAR’s industry roundtable they started a conversation with Dräger around the challenges they face in entering the North American market.
 
“When faced with this challenge, we can provide companies like Dräger a point of entry into the North American market to first and foremost help them establish the viability of that market before proceeding to FDA approval.”
 
Rob Clark, U.S.-based Director of Perioperative Care Marketing for Dräger, says CSTAR was a great fit for his company in opening the door to the North America market.
 
“The feedback we received will be used to determine the development strategy for the technology for the North American market,” says Clark. “I will definitely consider using the CSTAR facility again.”
 
While he would love to see the Zeus already in the North American market, Clark realizes there are regulatory and technical questions that need to be clarified before any predictions are made as to when they will arrive.
 
“However, we now have the information we need to be able to make these decisions,” he says.
 
Parker says Dräger’s visit to London could also have future benefits for not only CSTAR, but also the region. CSTAR is now positioned to become the North American training centre for Dräger. And if the market proves to be viable, there could be future opportunities for manufacturing facilities in London.
 
“At a broader level, what we’re trying to do here is expose to the Canadian health care system what might be some alternative technologies that could actually be better for the patients we care for, which otherwise we would not be exposed to if CSTAR wasn’t enabling companies to bring their products to North America,” says Parker.
 
“Wherever medical device technology is developed internationally, for those who are looking to establish a beachhead in the market in North America, CSTAR is working to become that portal of entry for these companies. Our feeling is that if a pipeline can be established from the outside into North America, then the flow of technologies will go the other way - from Canada and London to the world.
 

Also from this web page:

About

Hours

Weekdays
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(holidays excluded)

Contact

Publisher:
Helen Connell (hconnell@uwo.ca)

Editor:
Jason Winders (newseditor@uwo.ca)

Reporter/Photographer:
Paul Mayne (pmayne@uwo.ca)

Reporter/Photographer:
Heather Travis (htravis2@uwo.ca)

Advertising Coordinator:
Denise Jones (advertise@uwo.ca)

Off-Campus Advertising Sales:
Chris Amyot, Campus Ad (campusad@sympatico.ca)

National Advertising Representative:
Campus Plus

Phone:
519-661-2045

Fax:
519-661-3921

Mail:
Western News, Suite 360
Westminster Hall
The University of Western Ontario, London N6A 3K7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Western provides the best student experience among Canada's leading research-intensive universities.