Issue:
As per changes to BC’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulation effective in 2008, any medical sharp used to treat or care for a person must be a safety engineered medical sharp. This change has been met with resistance by the medical community, concerned about the potential for new risks with current scalpel designs, including risks for patient safety. This project is an assessment of the efficacy of existing safety-engineered scalpels.
Objectives:
The research will include: development of a design brief that outlines the issues that a safety engineered scalpel is intended to address; investigation of existing scalpels to determine if they meet the list of design criteria and requirements, including a review of existing literature that investigates the efficacy of safety engineered scalpels; and, conceptual design and prototype development.
Anticipated Results:
It is anticipated that the project’s outcomes will assist regulators, manufacturers and users in determining the suitability of safety engineered scalpels. One of the outcomes of this project will be information regarding the ability of existing safety engineered scalpels to meet the design criteria and requirements established by WorkSafeBC, users and customers. The knowledge created by this project can be used by device manufacturers for more effective designs and by health authorities for selection of effective products.
Investigators:
Ryan Kanigan (Peak Research)
