SuturTek's Fascia Suturing Device Wins Silver 2006 Industrial Design Excellence Award
North Chelmsford, MA - SuturTek Incorporated, a medical device company with a unique, patented safe-suturing solution, today announced that its 360-degree Fascia Closure Device has received a Silver 2006 Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA), one of the world's most prestigious design competitions. Co-sponsored by BusinessWeek and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the IDEA is an international competition that was started in 1980 and recognizes design and innovation from around the world.
The IDEA competition spans the hottest designs, innovative problem-solvers and coolest concepts for products. Breathtaking aesthetics, rugged engineering and enhanced usability characterized entries in categories as diverse as consumer electronics, housewares, transportation, sporting goods, furniture and medical and scientific equipment. Judging criteria for each entry focused on five areas of industrial design excellence: design innovation, benefit to the user, benefit to the client/business, ecological responsibility, and appropriate aesthetics and appeal.
Silver winner of the medical and scientific equipment category, the SuturTek 360-degree Fascia Closure Device is designed to prevent needlestick injuries during fascia closures. Fascia is the dense tissue layer under the skin and fat that envelopes the abdominal cavity and large muscles. Fascia closure is traditionally performed by manual suturing, using large, unprotected sharp needles and is a critical surgical procedure that is performed at the conclusion of 5 million surgeries each year in the US alone.
"Receiving a Silver IDEA acknowledges our commitment to innovative design, which is a driving force behind our products, and why surgeons find our devices so easy and effective to use," explained Gerald Brecher, President and CEO, SuturTek Incorporated. "This award is the second design excellence we received this year, and reinforces the expertise and execution of our product development team, along with our Industrial Design and Manufacturing partners, Bleck Design Group and Lacey Manufacturing, Inc. who continue to play a key role in our success."
SuturTek and its design team developed the SuturTek 360-degree Fascia Closure Device based on the need to prevent needlestick injuries and protect surgeons, nurses, operating room staff and patients against potentially deadly blood borne pathogens. The device precisely replicates traditional hand suturing techniques and prevents accidental needlesticks by containing the sharp point of the needle in a protective cartridge when not in use. It also reduces trauma to the tissue by assuring the needle always follows its own arc. For surgeons, it speeds up the procedure and reduces the tedium of hand suturing - simply squeeze the handle to place a stitch. The SuturTek 360-degree Fascia Closure Device can also be used with equal ease in either hand.
SOURCE: SuturTek Incorporated