Bangladesh native Seule Kabir, who has an MA in mechanical engineering, along with other students, has designed a prototype for a surgical table whose potential cost works up to $500. The table has been designed as a solution to the high priced standard surgical tables ranging from $5,000 to $80,000 currently in use in hospitals across the world.
The new table is considered to be perfect for developing nations which may find it more affordable. The students have been working on the project named
Operation Simple” for the last two years. The project has seen partnerships between art, engineering and business students, in VCU’s da Vinci Center for Innovation in Product Design and Development.
The height of the table can be adjusted with the use of a simple scissor jack. The surgical table can be disassembled to fit into a 24-inch cube cardboard box for easy shipping.
The students are exploring the possibility to establish a start-up company to get the table manufactured in India and shipped by sea to Bangladesh. Standard surgical tables require huge crates for shipment at a cost that exceeds the $500 price ceiling that they’ve put on their product.
Collaboration between engineering and arts students have helped the end product to be a perfectly engineered and aesthetically appealing surgical table.
