Many paths to innovation

The need for innovation is a fundamental law of the market economy. Every industry thrives on new products coming to market or existing ones being improved. However, in the health care sector, these innovation processes have a special significance because they have a direct impact on people’s well-being. In an emergency, human lives depend on them. It goes without saying that Research & Development also plays a central role at B. Braun – across all divisions and at numerous locations around the world. A wide variety of approaches are being taken, but they all have one goal: to help patients and make the attending physicians and nursing staff’s jobs easier.

Fruitful dialogue

Dr. Giuliana Gavioli, Senior Vice President Research & Development at B. Braun Avitum, is a distinguished expert. She studied medical technology and wrote her doctorate about the neurological aspects of artificial nutrition. She has worked at B. Braun since 1991, where her responsibilities include the worldwide registration of new products. Today, Gavioli works as a visiting professor at the University of Modena and leads a large research team at B. Braun Avitum in nearby Mirandola – one of the largest centers of medical technology in the world. “Innovation processes in the medical device business are often very complex because this field is highly regulated for understandable reasons, and very high standards for product safety apply,” says Dr. Gavioli.

One of B. Braun Avitum’s most important innovations in recent years was in dialysis. In addition to the widely known hemodialysis for people with chronic kidney disease, acute dialysis is for intensive care patients who are suffering from multiple organ failure. While hemodialysis must be performed several times a week for a few hours, acute dialysis runs continuously – for up to 100 hours. And in the cases where patients receive intensive care for a longer period of time, this takes place several times in a row.

“In particularly severe cases, however, dialysis isn't the only treatment needed. If lung failure is also involved, the blood must also be externally oxygenated,” explains Gavioli. “In conversations with critical care physicians and nurses, we came to understand that both procedures can be done well individually, but that the necessary combination often leads to stress and is an unnecessary burden on the patient.” 

One device for different processes

So, the idea that both the removal of toxins from the blood and its enrichment with oxygen could be performed with the same device was proposed. “What followed was a very intense research effort by a team of about 30 people, including software and hardware developers, technicians and physicians, experts in patents and registration,” Dr. Gavioli recalls. “We started in 2015; by 2019 we had approval for the European market.” Then came COVID-19 – and although it wasn’t planned that way, the B. Braun OMNI (ECCO2R), the name of the acute dialysis machine, was suddenly in demand in all intensive care units.

This is because multiple organ failure affecting the lungs is one of the most common complications in severe COVID-19 infections. The importance of this system for the critical care of COVID-19 patients can also be seen in the fact that the registration process in China went unusually fast. “Normally, it takes around four years for a new product to be approved in China. With the B. Braun OMNI, it was done in one year,” says Dr. Gavioli. “I’m very proud of the team - everyone was aware that they were working on a device that could save lives or at least make critical care dramatically easier.”

Discover new things together

B. Braun OMNI and the vagus nerve stimulator are the result of a predefined research process – an idea was developed, then the focus was put on the best and fastest possible implementation. Sometimes, however, innovation comes from collaboration with partners. Indeed, sound scientific exploration can also be demonstrated by a high degree of openness: in dialog, one engages in new things – and in the process, groundbreaking discoveries can be made together.  This is what happened to Dr. Christine Weis, Head of Strategic Research Line Meshes & Biologics at B. Braun Surgical in Rubi near Barcelona.

With a doctorate in chemistry, she has been working for B. Braun since 1999 and now heads a research team on surgical technology, which, interestingly enough, is mainly made up of women. “Not that we planned it that way, but the women just often turned out to be the best,” she says. Dr. Weis cites close cooperation with the numerous universities, colleges, and hospitals in the greater Barcelona area as the most important driver of innovation. “Together with the Universitat Politècnica De Catalunya in Barcelona, for example, we developed a technology in which nanoparticles of gold can be activated using laser radiation so they emit heat. This way, bacteria can be killed using physics,” explains Dr. Weis. The initial stimulus for this research, the results of which have already been protected by several patents, actually came about through a dialogue.

What emerged is a truly astonishing innovation. The nanoparticle-coated surfaces activated by the laser radiation can be used for more than sterilisation in the operating room, for example. These materials can also be used in or on implants, because laser activation also works through living tissue to a certain extent. “There will be a great deal of conceivable uses that directly relate to OR safety or the health of those being treated,” Dr. Weis says. Here, too, B. Braun’s innovative spirit is visible: thinking in all directions; it’s a question of always being open and alert and taking every possible innovation seriously. After all, every innovation directly serves the well-being of patients.