Rampart IC, a Birmingham, Alabama based medical device company specializing in radiation shielding and orthopedic protection, today announced a collaborative agreement with Boston Scientific Corporation, a leading medical device manufacturer, to expand access and promote the importance of radiation safety and orthopedic protection solutions to medical professionals.

Dr. Paul Teirstein: “I'm getting like a third of the radiation dose that I would if I was wearing a lead. Okay. Because this thing is one millimeter. It's twice as thick as my lead. Not only am I getting a third of the dose that I would be underneath the lead, but my head's not getting radiated, my eyes aren't getting radiated. My you know, nothing's getting radiated. And my back doesn't hurt.”

“…And there just was not a viable solution there to allow me to get back into the lab without the weight on my back and to have the free mobility that I need to do the complex procedures that I do. During that period that I was not able to walk and not able to work, I started looking for solutions- and how can I get back into the lab?…”

“I’ve always been trying to figure out- how we do things better, how do we do it safer, how do we do it more efficiently? And that really led initially me wanting to get into robotics because I wanted to stop wearing lead, and if you look at our job about 50% of people have some orthopedic injury - the normal population is somewhere around 4%.

And so I started working on that, and then as that moved along I got involved with a company called Rampart IC. And again the reason was is not only did I want to make it so that I don’t have to wear lead, but I also wanted to make it so my staff didn’t have to wear lead and, I wanted to be able to continue to do my job in the easiest orthopedic way I could.”

“In the hospital world where patients are always the priority, it’s rare for a major investment to be made that primarily benefits physicians. But what helps doctors ultimately benefits patients, too. Thanks to a gift from the Welsh Foundation of Vero Beach, Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital became the first hospital in the state of Florida and the first within the Cleveland Clinic worldwide system to purchase a revolutionary “Rampart” device that protects healthcare workers from radiation exposure during catheter procedures.

For decades, interventionalists and staff relied on lead aprons to protect themselves from radiation in the cath lab. But over time, the weight of the aprons can cause fatigue and long-term injuries to the back and neck.

The Rampart is a device specifically engineered for interventionalists and cath labs to give physicians and their teams the freedom to work without the need for heavy lead aprons while protecting them from radiation.”