Two INSTINCT Projects Win Top Awards

April 24, 2019

Baylor College of Medicine’s INSTINCT℠ (Interdisciplinary Surgical Technology and Innovation Center), sponsored two projects that have received top recognition (sponsorship made available by the Sue Nguyen Incubator Award).

EasyScope, an affordable 3D printed laparoscopic surgical instrument for low-resource settings, was developed by four seniors from Rice University Institute for Global Health — Rohan Chardwaj, Safina Hsu, Ami Sheth and Ria Sur. The project was completed under the leadership of Dr. Rachel Davis, general surgery resident in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery and founder of the Global Surgery Residency Track at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Stuart Corr, assistant professor of surgical research and director of surgical innovation and technology.

The inspiration behind the device is Dr. Davis’ long-time interest and trailblazing in the field of global heath. The Global Surgery Residency Track, which she created, is a two-year program that incorporates international, rural and sub-specialty skill and is the first NRMP-recognized program in the country. As Baylor’s first Global Surgery Fellow, Dr. Rachel Davis travelled to Malawi and Guatemala to provide surgical care and learn about systems-based challenges in resource-limited environments. She brought her experience to the creation of EasyScope, which is low-cost, durable, easily maintainable, and sterilizable in an under-resourced setting. On April 11, 2019, EasyScope won the Excellence in Capstone Engineering Design Award at the 2019 Engineering Design Showcase at Rice University.

Tinystitch, a micro-suturing device for in-utero fetoscopic surgery, was developed by four Rice University Engineering students — Serena Agrawal, Sarah Cao, Allison Rozich and Marcelo Salinas. The project was completed under the leadership of Dr. Michael Belfort, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Corr. The device, which is under four millimeters in diameter, can be used by one surgeon to perform fetoscopic surgery. On April 14, 2019, Tinystitch won the silver medal in the 2019 John Hopkins Healthcare Design Challenge.

Directed by Dr. Stuart J. Corr, INSTINCT offers a fast-track, Biodesign-based program to take ideas from concept into reality. INSTINCT is fully aligned with Baylor’s vision of improving health through science, scholarship, education, and seek to provide support in making the Texas Medical Center the ‘Third Coast’ for medical innovation and technology.