Albuquerque emergency room physician Scott Forman, left, and Sandia engineer Mark Reece look over a prototype set of improved trauma shears they worked on together. Photo by Randy Montoya |
An
Albuquerque physician teamed with a Sandia National Laboratories
engineer to improve the doctor’s trauma shears design so emergency
personnel can get to the injuries they need to treat more quickly.
“Sometimes
seconds count. This product will make a difference for the medical
community,” said Mark Reece of Sandia’s Multiscale Metallurgical Science
& Technology group. “It’s neat to see something come out of Sandia
that will save lives.”
Reece
worked with Scott Forman, an emergency room physician and CEO of the
Albuquerque startup Héros, formerly known as EMvolution, to improve the
performance and durability of trauma shears—the go-to tool for
responders in the first seconds of a crisis. The shears must cut through
a wide range of materials, from denim to leather to Kevlar, to expose
wounds for treatment.
Reece
and Forman joined forces through the New Mexico Small Business
Assistance (NMSBA) Program, which pairs entrepreneurs with scientists at
Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories. The state-funded program
was established in 2000 by the New Mexico Legislature to help small
businesses get technical support from the labs. The program has given
1,876 small businesses in 33 counties $29.8 million in technical
assistance. The help is free of charge to the business.
Smarter,
more durable trauma shears was something Forman had imagined and
tinkered with in his garage for years. He has a background in
mountaineering and wilderness medicine and was frustrated by the flimsy,
disposable construction of typical trauma shears. “They are imprecise
and made of cheap, shoddy materials with a blade that dulls quickly,” he
said. “People just throw them away.”
And
they get lost. “It’s not at all uncommon to have a patient come into
the ER and everybody starts looking for their darn trauma shears,”
Forman said. “They’re hard to keep track of. You can’t find them.”
Forman
fitted the handle of his first home-made shears with an integrated
carabiner that clips onto a belt. He attached it to a standard
manufactured set of trauma shears blades coated with titanium nitrate
for a sharper, longer-lasting edge. And he personalized the shears with
laser engraving so if they got lost, they’d find their way back.
Forman
founded a company in 2008, applied for a patent and made 1,100 pair in
his spare time while working as a University of New Mexico resident in
emergency medicine. “They just caught on from word of mouth,” he said.
“Most of the EMTs in New Mexico carry some version of my early trauma
shears. I started to think this could work.”
But
Forman needed serious help to produce the top-notch shears he
envisioned and believed he could sell in bulk to global customers in
military, medical, emergency and other fields. He met flight paramedic
Daniel Barela, who had brought a product to prototype through NMSBA with
his company Trinity Medical.
Barela
was intrigued by Forman’s trauma shears and joined the business. They
applied to NMSBA. In December 2010, Forman was directed to Reece—and
stopped making shears in his garage.
“I
took Mark our first-generation product and told him we needed help with
the material selection for the blades and the blade design so the
shears could cut through a more robust set of materials,” Forman said.
He
handed Reece about 15 materials that emergency personnel typically
face, including Kevlar from bulletproof vests, loose gauze, diapers,
fiberglass and plaster, all with different densities and compositions.
He also gave Reece a variety of blades.
“We
wanted Mark to determine if there was one blade design that would give
the most bang for the buck,” Forman said. “And Mark, the genius that he
is, did it.”
Reece
studied the best shears from all over the world, focusing on why some
worked better than others and why none worked well on synthetic fibers
such as Kevlar, ballistic nylons and polyethylenes. He tested all the
blades on all the materials.
“The failures were very reproducible,” Reece said. “I began to see a trend of what worked and why.”
He
researched the literature on cutting with scissor blades. “I drew in
material on everything from hairstylists to fabric manufacturers and
tried to assemble a picture of what was going on here,” he said. “I got
out the microscope and video camera and examined what happens as each
blade attempts to cut fabric.”
Reece
learned how serrations should be made and combined that data with
information on dentation of animals such as sharks, whose triangular
teeth are powerful shearing machines. He then tested various blade
angles on all the materials. Reece machined trial blades and gave Forman
reports and prototypes. “We honed in on a design that gives much better
cutting capability,” Reece said.
Physician Scott Forman’s prototype trauma shears has an ergonomic handle with an integrated carabiner, a proprietary blade design and various attachments, some recommended by emergency medical technicians. Photo by Randy Montoya |
He
and Forman worked together for about six months. The base-model shears
they developed has an ergonomic, ambidextrous handle with an integrated
carabiner. The blade length and handle pivot point are engineered to
generate considerable torque, so less effort is needed for heavy
cutting. The blades are high carbon content surgical stainless steel
that can be autoclaved.
“We
incorporated a proprietary blade design,” Forman said. “Mark is
excessively meticulous. He created the pitch of this blade, the troughs
between the serrations, the angulations of the serrations and pitch of
the other blade—the nonserrated side—to create shears that can cut
through everything. It’s brilliant.”
The
shears also have a ripper attachment with a replaceable blade to zip
through clothing, a bottle opener for medications, a key for oxygen
tanks and a window punch. “It’s an all-in-one tool,” Forman said. “EMTs
suggested some of the features.”
Under
NMSBA rules, the program pays for a specific amount of the researcher’s
time, which is woven into his or her existing work. The business owner
keeps rights to any intellectual property generated through the
collaboration.
Forman’s
company, Héros, has a patent pending on the final trauma shears design
and is negotiating prototype production, product manufacturing and
distribution. Héros includes Forman and Barela, along with Drew Tulchin,
who focuses on business development, and marketing director Mike
Sophir.
Reece
said he enjoyed working with Forman. “It was very cool,” Reece said.
“Scott Forman is the real deal. He’s enterprising and has good ideas.
When he said this is what we need and this is why, you listen.”
John
Willgohs of the Bernalillo County Fire Department said he had a eureka
moment when he first saw Forman’s shears. “The ones out there are
adequate, but if you have to cut through anything of any substance or
thickness, you might as well throw the shears away afterward,” he said.
“To have something stronger and more beefy, wow, it’s fantastic. And the
clip, oh my gosh. You’re rushing around in the heat of the moment, it’s
chaotic, and you have to find the shears. When they’re clipped to your
belt, they’re right there. That clip was another eureka moment.”
Mike
Cavit, an Albuquerque emergency room technician and EMT, said he
appreciates that the blades stay sharper longer and can be resharpened.
“The clip makes them accessible and the blades stay sharp,” he said.
The
shears will cost more than typical throwaway models, from $20 to $60
versus $5 to $10. Both Cavit and Willgohs say the extra cost would be
well worth it to have better shears.
Forman
said he has other ideas for improved emergency equipment and would like
to work again with Reece. He plans to reapply to NMSBA. “It’s a
fantastic program,” Forman said. “It’s invaluable.”
Forman, who finished his residency and joined Presbyterian Hospital in 2010, said the trauma shears have been a labor of love.
“I’ve
learned a lot about business, marketing, customer service, material
selection and design, manufacturing, prototyping, intellectual property,
acquisition, contract law,” he said. “Just about every day somebody
comes up and says, ‘Aren’t you the doc who makes trauma shears?’ They
have ideas of their own. These are nurses and paramedics and people who
know what they’re talking about. I want to be able to help get those
products to market.”