'Where Technology Meets Science': Doctors, Medical Students Take Experimental Medtech For A Spin In Pittsburgh's Center For Surgical Arts

Some big-name device-makers – Medtronic, Stryker, Karl Storz, Siemens and more – are donating expensive capital equipment to the Center for Surgical Arts, a modern teaching lab that boasts 21 bays for training residents and fellows in various types of surgery. The companies are doing this to not only nail down future customers, but to test new devices, as well. The Center also includes a Bose test frame that was used to help clear Alphatec Spine's Solus device with US FDA without a clinical trial. "Those can be multimillion-dollar studies. So, to be able to do that, and to have the FDA feel comfortable with that, is kind of a cool capability," says Dr. Donald Whiting, chair of the Allegheny Health Network Neuroscience Institute.

Boyle Cheng
Boyle Cheng, director of research for the AHN Neuroscience Institute, holds a Karl Storz endoscope at one of the 21 bays in Pittsburgh's Center for Surgical Arts • Source: Shawn M. Schmitt

Boyle Cheng zipped around the Center for Surgical Arts like a kid in a candy store, pointing out all his favorite gadgets – state-of-the-art medical devices he says make the surgical training facility second-to-none.

"Those pieces from Leica – the optics on those are world-famous. The quality is amazing," Cheng said, drawing attention to one of eight floor-mounted surgical microscopes that Leica...

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