Driver-Activated VIDeoscopic Surgery: An Innovation Journey from Idea to Industry-Ready

Innovation is not a straightforward path. While surgeons are intimately familiar with clinical problems and often devise clever solutions to address them, the journey from idea to a marketable product is opaque. We describe our experience developing a novel video navigation system to help streamline collaboration and enhance surgeon control of their video image in minimally invasive surgery. Our idea began with recognizing the primary clinical challenge: "one bad image for all" in laparoscopic surgery, when the least experienced member of the surgical team is often expected to hold the camera. Through multiple iterations and pivots, including hardware-based solutions like head-mounted displays and individualized monitors, we arrived at a hardware-agnostic software algorithm to process laparoscopic video for real-time image navigation. As we explain why, how, and when to pivot, we provide brief overviews of protecting intellectual property and financing innovation. Finally, collaboration with professional societies, such as the International Pediatric Endosurgery Group, provides fertile testing grounds for new ideas. Our experience may help future surgeon-innovators go from their ideas to industry-ready.