The SAM: Safe Surgery Across the Developing World (#TheSAMGlobalTeam)
The SAM (Screenless Anesthesia Monitor) is a surgical vital signs innovation, utilizing mobile and IoT technologies to save lives in the world’s neediest ICUs and operating theaters.
Surgery shouldn't cost you your life. The SAM combats high surgical mortality among the poorest 1/3rd of the world.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die unnecessarily on the operating table, simply because their doctor does not have the vital signs needed for safe surgery. It comes down to economics and location - if you are among the poorest 1/3rd of the world, you are nearly 1,000 times more likely to die from anesthesia medications than patients in the West.
SAM changes this - giving doctors and field paramedics a cost-effective, award-winning, innovative medical patient monitoring solution that anyone can use, anywhere in the world. The result? Saved lives, stronger families, and healthier economies in the places that need it most.
We are physicians who care about our patients’ survival. The SAM is an innovation born of necessity.
Dr. Paul Barton is an anesthesiologist from San Antonio, Texas. He served as a missionary doctor in Guatemala, Haiti, and Macedonia. During his time in these countries, he found surgical units without the equipment to operate safely, and donated equipment broken in the corner.
He was disturbed with the reality that people were dying around the world for lack of basic vital signs equipment - and that the needed equipment was too large and expensive to get to those who needed it most. There had to be a better way.
He yearned to have a device that was mobile and “ownable,” a vital signs device that was small and robust enough to consistently work accurately in a remote location. It also had to be a device that a person or group would have the capacity and incentive to maintain over time. He saw the smartphone in the hand of doctors and medics everywhere on earth, and recognized that it carried more computing power than the moon-bound US space program. Could we leverage the technology they already had, to deliver a solution they so desperately needed?
In partnership with Inform Innovation, a solid team of medical IoT innovators in Macedonia, The SAM was born.
Today, The SAM is becoming a solution for a wide variety of users, including those providing urgent care to patients outside of the operating room. Combat medics, first responders, and wilderness rescue teams all need access to these same vital signs, and The SAM is built with them in mind.
The SAM will change lives - but we need you.
The SAM story is still unfolding. The system was recently endorsed by a global innovation award from the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists, a World Health Organization partner in the Global Pulse Oximetry Project playing a key role in implementing safe surgery throughout the world. The system is also supported by the personal investment of physicians and investors in the US and Europe.
The team also includes a growing army of people like you. These passionate people see a future where birthing mothers in places like the Middle East, Central America, Bangladesh, and sub-Saharan Africa look to anesthesia with relief, and not the fear of death. They are not afraid of audacious goals and understand that small rudders turn big ships in the health of millions across the globe. They believe that this is a fight that is worth our commitment.
We are honored to be on this journey together. Let’s make a difference in the lives of those who need it most.