VISUAL CLARITY & CLEAR CUT INSTRUCTIONS

How we helped surgeons choose tools and procedures for heart surgery.

SUMMARY

Estech is one of the preeminent surgical instrument manufactures in operation (see what we did there?), particularly for heart surgery. Since their instruments are new and innovative Estech wanted to inform surgeons about the specific ways to use them in situ, and give these doctors a chance to specify which they will use before the surgery.

Here’s how we helped Estech deliver an effective solution to prepare surgeons and surgical staff to use their tools for heart surgeries.

WHAT WE DID

Medical Illustration

Collateral

CHALLENGE

Estech wanted a way to give surgeons the latest information about their highly speciallized surgical instruments. The challenge though, is that since the tools are new and innovative, they give surgeons access to the heart in different ways. This is great, as in many cases the new instruments and approaches are less invasive than older methods. However, Estech needed an effective way to gently remind surgeons of this and to show exactly where heart access was best given.

How could we help surgeons select the right instruments for a specific surgery, AND show them the best ways to use them?

INSIGHTS

A picture IS worth a thousand words, so that seemed to be a good place to start. Getting imagery in front of surgeons that explained as simply as possible where to cut for various procedures would be ideal. Presenting a lineup of instruments for physicians to select would be good too. Additionally, surgical staff would be better informed about what instruments to prepare if physicians had a way to specify all of this pre-surgery.

SOLUTION

INK AND SCREEN
TO IMPROVE THE MEMORY

The simple solution was to develop a set of notepads that presented specific Estech surgical instruments, and detailed surgical illustrations that indicated where best to cut using these new tools. This way surgeons could choose instruments and lesion sets pre-surgery by marking-up a worksheet, and surgical staff could then use the marked up sheets to prepare for the operation. As a bonus, these notepads could be easily transported and reproduced inexpensively.

Creating digital versions of these worksheets became a necessity since screens have become more prevalent in paperless surgical theaters.

CREATING THE ILLUSTRATIONS

The first step was to understand the different surgical procedures and where the lesions sets were to take place on the heart. Once we understood the particulars of each surgery, we created custom cut-away illustrations of the heart from multiple angles that showed just where lesions were best made for various procedures. These illustrations were printed with a slightly lower contrast to permit the surgeon to indicate where any deviation in lesions may occur.

BRINGING ON THE TOOLS

The next step was to create an effective format to showcase the proprietary Estech instruments and medical illustrations. In the end, two pieces were created with two different lesion sets. They were printed as notepads, and eventualy put into a digital format.

RESULTS

Having the ability, presurgery, to select tools and specify procedural information was extremely handy for surgeons. They found that adapting to Estech’s advanced surgical instruments became easier as a result.

After a short time, these tools were recreated digitally to take advantage of technology in paperless surgical theaters.

“Their clear illustration style and fast delivery made working with Adduci Studios a great experience. And since they also do web work, translating the illustrations to digital media was a breeze!”

– Nancy Erwin, Marketing Communications Manager

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