This post is part of the Biodesign’s Jugaad series following a group of Stanford Biodesign fellows from India. (Jugaad is a Hindi word that means an inexpensive, innovative solution.) The fellows will spend months immersed in the interdisciplinary environment of Stanford Bio-X, learning the Biodesign process of researching clinical needs and prototyping a medical device. The Biodesign program is now in its 14th year, and past fellows have successfully launched 36 companies focused on developing devices for unmet medical needs.
After months of observing clinics and winnowing down the most pressing (and commercially viable) medical needs, the Stanford-India Biodesign team has developed what looks like nothing so much as a very elaborate clothespin. It is intended to help doctors ensure that coiled pacemaker leads that screw into heart tissue stay put. Currently, about five percent of those leads fall out, requiring costly additional surgery. Worldwide, the number of people whose leads fall out is estimated at 80,000 to 100,000.
Debayan Saha says their prototype is a perfect example of Indian Jugaad. It’s made of what looks like the contents of a scrap pile, and he says could both work and be cheap to produce in it’s current low-tech form. But just because it’s inexpensive doesn’t mean it’s not cleverly designed. That’s what the Indian team brings to Biodesign, he said – smart technology at low cost.
“Getting the prototype exactly right made use of all the resources we have here at Stanford,” Saha said. “But the final product is something we could produce at very low cost.” Creating technology in a developing country requires creative solutions to keep that technology affordable.
The group has a provisional patent on their device and they will present their it to the entire biodesign team June 8. Until that presentation they are keeping it's exact function under wraps. They did recently test the prototype in a lamb heart, with good results. They were consistently able to screw the pacemaker lead more securely into the heart tissue.
Harsh Sheth, MD, said the team (which also includes Shashi Ranjan, PhD) will be heading back to India at the end of June and will repeat the same process there – visiting clinics, assessing needs, and prototyping a solution. He said they might later return to their Stanford prototype or keep working on whatever they design in India.
Previously: From popsicle sticks to improved medical care, The next challenge for biodesign: constraining health-care costs and Stanford-India Biodesign co-founder: Our hope is to “inspire others and create a ripple effect” in India
Photos, of Debayan Saha screwing a pacemaker lead into a lamb heart using their prototype, and of the coiled screw going into the heart, courtesy of Amy Adams
