Research and Development In 1995 USSC was awarded 158 patents, ranking it 29th among all organizations based in the United States and second among health care companies. To develop its Mini-CABG instrumentation, USSC sought the expertise of leading surgeons, including Mehmet C. Oz, MD, Director, Mechanical Circulatory Support Program (center) and Eric A. Rose, MD, Chairman of the Department of Surgery, Columbia- Presbyterian Medical Center. USSC's first major technological breakthrough in the cardiovascular area was the VCS clip applier, introduced in 1996. Other products targeted to the cardiovascular and interventional cardiology markets are in development. Computer-generated models allow instrument prototypes to be built quickly and inexpensively for surgeon feedback and modifications. USSC's research scientists are searching for a better understanding of how wounds heal in order to find ways of speeding the healing process. The company’s research and development program, coupled with an expanded commitment to acquire outside technologies, is moving USSC into exciting new markets such as cardiovascular, urological and orthopedic surgery, and an expanded presence in women’s health care. Surgeons have always played an integral role in USSC’s product development. Clinicians from leading academic medical centers, the innovators in their field, collaborate with the company on these projects. USSC’s research efforts are global. Dr. Mehmet C. Oz of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Dr. M. Clive Robinson of the University of Kentucky School of Medicine played key roles in helping the company develop minimally invasive instrumentation for coronary bypass surgery. Simultaneously, Dr. Patrick Nataf of La Pitié Salpetrière Hospital in Paris, France, spearheaded early clinical evaluation of these devices and provided important insights. “Despite our prevention efforts, cardiac disease remains the leading cause of death,” Dr. Oz explains. “On the other hand, recent advances in cardiology have allowed many patients who would have died ten years ago to be kept alive but in need of treatment. This trend will create a need for more open heart surgery in the years to come.” With managed care dictating lower health care costs, cardiovascular surgeons will be looking for new, less invasive ways of performing open heart surgery. The technique which Drs. Oz, Robinson, Nataf and their colleagues have developed offers two important patient benefits. It eliminates the use of the heart-lung bypass machine and the associated complications. It also avoids the need to split open the chest to access the heart. Patients who undergo this procedure, which uses USSC’s Mini-CABG instrumentation, spend less time in intensive care, enjoy shorter hospital stays and are able to return to normal activities much faster than patients who undergo traditional bypass surgery. Borrowing from the design of USSC's unique Endo Stitch instrument, engineers developed the ArthroSew device for use in arthroscopic surgery. It dramatically simplifies the process of suturing through a tiny incision.

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