February 17, 2006
A System to Prevent 'Wrong-Site Surgery'
INVENTIONS: AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
What it is: A warning system built around an electronic chip that sets off an alarm if doctors fail to mark the site of a planned surgery on patients before having them wheeled into an operating room.
The market: Physicians perform more than 70 million surgeries annually in the United States. About 4,000 times a year, the procedures are done in the wrong place. Such "wrong-site surgeries" are the fifth most frequent
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