KVAL: Slimstitch - less invasive obesity treatment

More than 650 million people are obese in the world. Obesity is associated with a number of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disease. Obese people also report lower quality of life and have shorter average lifespan than others. Lifestyle changes, such as dieting and exercise, can be effective for obese patients to loose weight as long as the new lifestyle habits are maintained, but most will regain what they have lost in the longer run. The most effective treatment for obesity today is to reduce the stomach volume by weight-loss surgery. With this operation, a significant and lasting weight loss is commonly achieved, but many patients experience chronic adverse effects. Less than 1% of patients who fulfill the criteria for weight-loss surgery and who have access to it, choose to go through with weight-loss surgery. There is a large need to provide obesity patients with better treatment options than what is available today. In the Slimstitch-project, we are developing a new device and a whole new procedure for effective and safe obesity treatment. The Slimstitch device is introduced to the stomach through the patient´s mouth, and makes it possible to stitch the stomach from the inside to reduce the volume equivalently to weight-loss surgery. The procedure will be equally effective as surgery, but less invasive and cause less adverse effects. Our vision is to provide safer treatment to achieve lasting weight-loss for more obese patients. During the project period we have, together with a product designer, developed a hand controller for the instrument. The next step is to develop a comprehensive functional prototype which integrates the hand controller. The prototype will be tested in a proof-of-concept study, on a biological model, which will mimic a clinical procedure.

I prosjektperioden har vi, sammen med leverandør Movement Biomedical Usability Design, utviklet håndkontrolleren for Slimstitch instrumentet. Vi har hatt regelmessige videomøter og også møtt med Movement teamet i Dublin. Sammen har vi utviklet modeller og utprøvd ulike aktuatorkonsepter. Basert på utprøvingene har vi utviklet en håndkontroller prototype.