In March, two trucks filled with doctors and medical supplies crossed the Polish border into Ukraine on a humanitarian mission to Kiev. Both vans were filled with traditional medical supplies such as tourniquets, bandages and suture kits that are urgently needed in the country. But one van also carries about 50 new systems that can safely perform surgeries in places where sterile operating rooms are not available.
The systems, designed by SurgiBox, a startup that has collaborated extensively with MIT’s D-Lab for more than a decade, are expected to be useful in applications far from war zones. Most of the world’s population does not have immediate access to an operating room, and during situations such as severe weather and other natural disasters, healthcare operations can be disrupted when they are needed most.
The SurgiBox system consists of an inward-facing armhole-facing bubble, a module that filters and controls airflow, and a battery. The whole thing fits in a backpack and can be set up in minutes.
“We are working hard to provide safe surgery to patients who need it,” said SurgiBox founder Debbie Teodorescu, who is also an affiliated researcher at MIT’s D-Lab. “In this day and age, it’s very difficult to perform surgery safely outside of a small part of the world. You can have the same doctors, the same great skills, but if you lack the facilities and equipment, you can’t provide the same care.”
To secure donations from Ukraine, SurgiBox’s team flew to Poland, waited in line at the Ukrainian border, and then drove several hours into Kiev, where they endured round-the-clock air raid sirens while training doctors on how to use the system.
The trip was grueling and gave the team at SurgiBox a new perspective on the daily hardships of Ukrainians. In many ways, it’s the culmination of a long journey that began with an idea Teodorescu had in 2009.
looking for your person
Teodorescu was still a student at Harvard University when he first became involved in D-Lab’s research projects around 2009.
“It was a very friendly and welcoming environment, and at the end of the project they said, “If you’ve ever been working on something or want to exchange ideas, we’re your people,” she recalled.
She came up with the idea for SurgiBox shortly after that experience while lamenting how difficult it was to safely perform surgery in so many places around the world.
“I thought, ‘We can protect our experiments anywhere we need to use a glove box, so why can’t we do the same for patients?'” Teodorescu recalled. “That’s where SurgiBox comes from – the surgical glove box. Now, it’s not really a box anymore and we don’t include gloves, but the same concept remains: you can protect the patient when needed.”
To realize this vision, Teodorescu immediately returned to D-Lab, where she began working with people including then-faculty research director Dan Frey; shop manager Jack Whipple and technical instructor Dennis Nagle passed away in 2020. D-Lab students also tackled early design and business problems for SurgiBox as part of their master’s and undergraduate thesis and team projects for classes 2.722J (D-Lab: Design) and 2.729 (Design for Scale). Another former D-Lab student, Macauley Kenney SM ’16, currently serves as the chief operating officer of SurgiBox in addition to serving as an instructor at MIT.
“D-Lab is truly an amazing place,” said Mike Teodorescu, CEO and co-founder of SurgiBox, who met Debbie when they were students at Harvard University and worked at D-Lab as a visiting scholar for two years. “I’ve been a student and professor at four universities, and I have to say that D-Lab is truly unique. It’s really popular if you’re doing something to help improve people’s lives, if you’re solving big problems Humanitarian issues, they’ll welcome you.”
The design the SurgiBox team settled on is compact, lightweight, and also mimics the environment of an operating room.
“Surgeons don’t want to change their workflow,” says Debbie Teodorescu. “Doing surgery is already a huge cognitive load. They don’t want to deal with something that adds cognitive load. We keep their workflow in place and say, “No matter what, you’re going to treat the patient like you’re doing surgery.” You more or less flip a switch to turn on the system and then extend your arms like you’re wearing a gown and start the surgery. “
Expanding access to safe surgery
Last month’s donation to Ukraine was one of several SurgiBox has made to the country. After the first incident, Ukraine’s Southern Operations Command sent back a letter thanking the company for saving 31 lives and asking for more. The team at SurgiBox realized that with healthcare infrastructure devastated across the country, civilian doctors in Ukraine were also using the system to treat conditions like childbirth and treat problems like gallbladder infections and appendicitis.
To secure the latest donation, Mike Teodorescu traveled to Kyiv with surgeon Michael Samotowka of the charity MedGlobal and HCA Florida Healthcare and Emanuele Lagazzi, a clinical researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, both of whom had previously traveled to Ukraine on aid missions.
“I would like to especially thank [Samotowka and Lagazzi] Thank you to their ongoing humanitarian work and to credit nonprofits like MedGlobal who provide much-needed assistance to disaster and war-affected areas,” said Mike Teodorescu.
SurgiBox is currently ramping up production of its system in preparation for its second EU medical device certification and official product launch in 28 countries this summer. The first complete production batches of SurgiBox will be delivered to Doctors Without Borders.
In the long term, SurgiBox’s team believes the system could be used to perform surgeries at the patient’s bedside if they are older or particularly susceptible to infection. They also point out that in some countries, where doctors drive around in ambulances, the SurgiBox could be used to perform mobile surgeries.
More broadly, they also see the system as a cheaper alternative for many procedures in the operating room.
“We believe SurgiBox can be used to reduce healthcare costs and provide greater flexibility to physicians and patients,” said Mike Teodorescu. “There are a number of costs associated with cleaning the operating room, preparing the patient, and getting the patient ready for the operating room. Having something like this at the patient’s bedside would be very beneficial.”