Civilian Tourniquet Patent
The team at Precision Trauma took the patent and developed it into a product that can be purchased off-the-shelf. Link can be found at the bottom
In 2016, at the University of Michigan, I worked in Professor Albert Shih’s lab on a project to design an improved tourniquet aimed at civilian use. The project was done in conjunction with Dr. Kevin Ward of the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care.
The goal was to design a tourniquet that that could be used by untrained civilians and be made available in public spaces in the case of a tragedy.
After extensive concept development and prototyping, we arrived at a solution using a screw and hook-and-loop strap design that we patented. The design also had a potential pivot to improve collapsibility. Compared to existing tourniquets on the market, this design had the following features that made it more suitable for civilian use:
A super-wide adjustable strap to prevent pinching and potential nerve damage
A large t-handle style dial that would be intuitive to use and operable with one hand. This would allow for a potential trauma victim to apply the tourniquet on themselves.
The dial and screw design allows for pressure to hold without a “secondary lock”
The dial design allows for trauma doctors to titrate the flow of blood without tourniquet pressure releasing all at once
The design was successfully patented, and eventually licensed and further developed by the team at Precision Trauma. If you’re interested in learning more about the product that resulted from this patent, please click the link at the bottom of the webpage.
