Reinforcing patent application and improving the end user experience
The team in Vasorum had developed a clever solution to rivet an artery shut, post stent surgery. When they needed to develop a deployment system they came to us.
PROJECT
CELT ACD
Outsmarting the patent process
Vasorum’s Celt ACD (Arterial Closure Device) is used to deploy a biocompatible stainless steel plug to close an arterial incision following a catheter-based procedure such as the placement of an endovascular stent.
After an initial stage of R&D the client brought us on board to shore up and reinforce their proposed patent claims by brainstorming and developing a pipeline of potential designs that could be used to achieve the same results.
The ideation session generated a number of directions that Vasorum built into their patent claims to make the intellectual property more robust and difficult to design around.
Human-centered design in practice
During the vascular stent procedure an incision is generally made in the femoral artery, the stent is delivered through this opening and, once deployed, the artery needs to be closed as quickly and as efficiently as possible. At the early stages of user research we found that all of this work was done by the surgeon. There was a clear opportunity to optimise this final stage so that it could not only be completed more effectively but also perhaps performed by another member of the surgical team, freeing up the surgeon for more procedures elsewhere.
Technical innovation delivering a simple user experience
The final deployment solution for the ‘rivet’ is a simple three stage procedure. Rotate the handle clockwise and the first flange of the ‘rivet’ is revealed and pulled taut on the inner wall of the artery.
Rotate the handle counterclockwise and the second flange of the ‘rivet’ is revealed on the outer wall of the artery.
A swift pull of the lever breaks a nitinol wire and secures the ‘rivet’ in place. The procedure can now be performed by a highly skilled nurse.
Human Impact
Reduced mean time to haemostasis to just 32 secs (versus nearest competitors at 2min*), a reduction of 75%.
Quicker than its nearest competitor by 17%.**
PROJECT
CELT ARTERIAL CLOSURE DEVICE
* UpponiSS1, Ganeshan AG, Warakaull eDR, Phillips-Hughes J, Boardman P,Uberoi R (2007) Angiosealversus manual compression for haemostasis following peripheral vascular diagnostic and interventional procedures--a randomized controlled trial, European Journal of Radiology, 61(2), pp. 322-324
** Jan A, Crean P, Bullesfeld L, Coleman J, Grube E, Mulvihill N. (2013) First clinical experience with Celt ACD(®) : a femoral arterial puncture closure device,Journal of Interventional Cardiology,26(4), pp. 417-424
** Cahill T, Malpass F, KardosA (2014) Celt ACD®, A novel stainless steel femoral artery closure device, reduces time to hemostasis, patient discomfort and late bruising compared with Angio-seal™, Heart, 100, Suppl3 A44
