Devices & Diagnostics, Hospitals, Startups

The need for speed in hospital sterile processing departments spurs a new Ohio device company

Achieving better outcomes with lower costs is the name of the game for hospitals these […]

Achieving better outcomes with lower costs is the name of the game for hospitals these days. A new medical device company called Innovative Sterilization Technologies thinks it can help by improving efficiency in an area of the hospital where not much innovation has been happening.

“Surgical instruments and implants are becoming more complex; sterile processing departments are having to turn over lots more trays but they have less people to do it,” said founder Scott Cohen. “The only answer is to become more efficient, and there’s not much out there that’s addressed the efficiency end of this.”

Cohen and his brother-in-law formed IST to bring to market One Tray, a rapid sterilization container he said can terminally sterilize surgical instruments, implants and drills in a prevacuum cycle in less than 20 minutes, rather than two hours.

The innovation lies in the design of both the tray and the proprietary filters, he explained. The three vents in the container create flow patterns that ensure that steam is dispersed throughout the container. One Tray also eliminates drying time and replaces the need for flash sterilization, Cohen said.

It received 510(k) clearance from the FDA when it was under ownership of a different company in California. Cohen, who has spent years in medical device sales and distribution, said he licensed the rights to the device in February of last year.

It hit the market in November and so far “the response from hospitals has been great,” he said. The Dayton, Ohio-based company is distributing the product throughout most of the northeast and some of the southeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. and plans to continue building that over the next several months. It’s also working on obtaining CE Mark so it can expand internationally.

Market reports suggest that the urgency around reducing hospital infections will trigger growth of the disinfection market, which is led by several large companies including STERIS, Sterigenics International, Advanced Sterilization Products and 3M.

Meanwhile, some other companies are also working on using technology to make SPDs more efficient. GE is in the midst of a two-year project developing a robotic system that would automate certain parts of the sterilization process, for example. And a group at Rice University is developing a way to use solar power for sterilization.

IST is small but confident. “There are a lot of band-aids for antiquated technologies out there, but there hasn’t really been anything new and exciting,” Cohen said.

[Image courtesy IST]

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