C2I 2022: Medical & Healthcare shortlist

Surgery could be extended to billions of people with medical equipment that is manufactured at low cost, is simple to use and easily maintained. That is the aim of RAIS (Retractor for Abdominal Insufflation-less Surgery), an international, multiple disciplinary collaboration led by Leeds University.

Surgical technology - often developed for well-resourced healthcare systems - is of little or no use in poorer settings where hospitals lack support infrastructure or appropriately trained staff. 

To overcome this, the project focussed on a development approach based on participatory design, where the users of the technology are closely involved, and where functionality of the device is pared back to key essentials.

Laparoscopic surgery was identified as an intervention that lowers risk of infection and improves patient outcomes. It requires the surgeon to inflate the patient’s abdomen with CO2 to create space to see internal organs and to manipulate instruments. An alternative method – gasless laparoscopy that employs a mechanical retractor or clamp to lift the abdominal wall - failed to gain traction due challenges with using and maintaining the retractors.