Team Featuring Two LGO Students Earns Accolades for Medical Device

By Leah Schouten

An MIT team featuring two Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) students took home first prize in a prestigious competition at the Design of Medical Devices (DMD) Conference in April.

Christie Simpson, LGO '11, and Julia Stark, LGO '11, were part of a team that developed a device to cool the kidney during minimally invasive surgery. They were among 18 MIT students who attended the 10th annual conference.


Members of the winning "Kidney Cooler" team (Christie Simpson, LGO '11, pictured far left).

Held in Minneapolis, Minn., the DMD Conference brings together medical device manufacturers, researchers and designers from around the globe to:
• Increase collaboration between academia and industry.
• Promote policy, research and educational initiatives as they relate to medical device design.

At the conference, the MIT students presented papers and posters representing their work and the work of their peers and instructors. Simpson and Starks' "Kidney Cooler" team was then invited to compete in the Three-in-Five Competition, where teams have three slides and five minutes to pitch their projects to a panel of judges.

Roots in MIT Course
The team earned first place for its "Innovative Renal Cooling Device for Use in Minimally Invasive Surgery," which was conceived of and built as part of the Development of Mechanical Products course (2.753) at MIT. The winners received a $500 prize and were invited to publish in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Journal of Medical Devices.


The "Kidney Cooler" device prototype.

"The conference was a wonderful opportunity to get immediate feedback on our product from surgeons, professors and others," said Simpson. "I really enjoy getting to work on such hands-on projects that could be used outside of the classroom. Since I'm planning to work in this industry, the conference was also a great chance to learn about some of the other companies in this field."

This project summary comes from the course website:

"Over 58,000 patients suffer from renal cell carcinoma annually in the US and treatment often requires surgical removal of the cancerous tissue via a partial nephrectomy. In open renal surgery, the kidney is placed on ice to increase allowable ischemia time; however there is no method for reducing kidney temperature during minimally invasive surgery. The device consists of a foldable bag that deploys through a 12 mm trocar, unfurls inside the abdomen then wraps around the kidney and is filled with ice slurry. Testing indicates that kidney core cooling to 20°C can be obtained in under 10 minutes, whereupon the water can then be suctioned out and the device removed, leaving the kidney ready for surgery with a longer working time."

In addition to Simpson and Stark, team members included MIT students Edward Summers, Thomas Cervantes, Rachel Batzer and Raymond Lewis along with Dr. Nadeem Dhanani of Mount Auburn Hospital.