Team Sac it to Em’ Collaborates to Advance Medical Care

Each episode of the Inventor Chronicles highlights a different inventor’s journey, showcasing their persistence and ingenuity in creating life-changing innovations. In this installment, members of the Structured Innovation Challenge team “Sac it to ‘Em” discuss their inspiration, the development process, and the profound potential implications of their invention for patient care.

Team "Sac it to ‘Em", participants in last year’s Structured Innovation Challenge, are revolutionizing surgery with a novel approach to specimen bagging. This multidisciplinary team includes Linda Bradley, MD, Bradley Gill, MD, Cara King, DO, MS, Lindsey Valentine, MD, Liron Bar-El, MD, and Emily Frisch, MD. Together, they are tackling inefficiencies in laparoscopic procedures with a device that makes specimen bagging faster and safer. Traditional methods are awkward and risky, but their device allows surgeons to encapsulate specimens with one hand in seconds, reducing risks and saving time.

This innovation was born from the Cleveland Clinic Innovations’ Structured Innovation Challenge, where the team collaborated across specialties to create their design. In their Inventor Chronicle feature, Dr. King emphasizes how perspectives from gynecology, urology, and engineering enhanced the solution, flipping traditional techniques on their head. The device simplifies the process for all glove sizes, improving safety and efficiency for both patients and surgical teams.

Supported by Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the team’s progress includes winning the Catalyst Spark Award and Hickey Innovation Impact Award in the summer of 2024. These grants have propelled the device into the prototyping phase, with the team now refining their design with biomedical engineers. Dr. Frisch reflects on the journey mentioning that, "This experience shows how we can improve patient care through collaboration and creativity."

The "Sac it to ‘Em" team’s device allows for shorter operating times, reduced anesthesia risks, and increased surgical capacity, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes. As Dr. Bar-El notes, "Knowing others believe in our idea motivates us to push boundaries and explore broader applications."

Cleveland Clinic Innovations brings the best ideas from the brightest minds in medicine to patients around the world by connecting inventors and their ideas with strategic industry partners to create products that transform the future of healthcare. Since our inception in 2000, Cleveland Clinic Innovations has helped inventors receive 2,700+ patents, executed more than 850 licenses and launched over 100 start-ups to turn ideas into next-generation products for patients.

Watch the full Inventor Chronicle featuring the "Sac it to ‘Em" team here.

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