As a corporate marketing and promotional gimmick, the mobile surgery trailer parked Wednesday at the Community Hospital of Munster (the USA one, not the German one) was described by local newspaper, the Post-Tribune as “a doozy”.
We don’t know what that means but here’s the article anyway:
Physicians and nurses from the hospital trekked to the high-tech trailer displaying minimally invasive surgical instruments usually connected to high-definition TV monitors and computer drives. There they could observe technicians demonstrating or practice themselves on the latest equipment used to suture and staple tissue or blood vessels on slices of raw beef or chicken.
Covidien sales representative Kevin Patterson showed how to seal a blood vessel with a sealer that produced steam when it clamped on a sliver of beef, which soon smelled like a sizzling steak.
Covidien’s “Innovation Tour” truck made its 90th stop this year in Munster to tout its line of minimally invasive surgical instruments and offer training and demonstration opportunities. Covidien manufactures medical devices, supplies and pharmaceuticals and earned $2 billion in operating income on 2010 revenue of $10.4 billion.
It sells its products to hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers, physician offices and ambulatory surgery centers. Wednesday it staged minimally invasive surgery demonstrations for surgical procedures performed through the abdomen, such as thoracic, colorectal, bariatric, general, OB/GYN and urological operations.
Covidien sales representative Kevin Patterson showed how to seal a blood vessel with a sealer that produced steam when it clamped on a sliver of beef, which soon smelled like a sizzling steak. The equipment is used when a surgeon is removing tissue and needs to seal a blood vessel to prevent bleeding.
On an HDTV monitor, Dyer surgeon Nabil Shabeeb viewed himself grasping items employing a surgical stapler the way a child would try to control a small remote-control crane to capture a 25-cent prize at a carnival arcade. The stapler is more expensive, though. Covidien marketing representative Jeffrey Schmitt showed Shabeeb how to use the still-in-development endostapler, demonstrating the open/close and rotate functions. With its connected rechargeable battery pack, the endostapler resembles a kind of power drill with jaws at the tip. Shabeeb looked like he was test driving a new car, learning how the new gadgets compare to the ones he’s previously used.
“All these technology applications make operating safer and faster,” said Shabeeb, who has performed minimally invasive surgical procedures at Community and St. Catherine’s Hospital in East Chicago since 1990.
“Minimally invasive surgery leads to faster recovery times,” he said. “Patients usually can leave the same day. When I was training 20 years ago, gall bladder surgeries called for five- to seven-day hospital stays. Now patients leave in one day.”
Medlatest’s view is that we first saw the idea of taking workshops and demo units to hospitals a long time ago, but Covidien have taken it to the next level with this programme, a level that only companies of their size could achieve. Would Eu clinicians respond well to this or are training and educational needs already satisfied by the myriad courses and events that take place at the present time?
Source: US Post-Tribune, medlatest staff
published: November 10, 2011 in: Covidien, Education and Training, Specialty, USA