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In 2010 Tack Smart Filter Technology BV closed a non-exclusive worldwide license agreement with Conmed Corporation. Conmed is a global medical technology company that specializes in the development and sale of equipment used in hospitals and for patient care (see www.conmed.com). Their specialist product range includes surgical smoke management equipment that uses TackSmart’s patented technology.

Filtering surgical smoke plumes

Electro surgery produces smoke that contains a variety of noxious chemical and biological by-products. For their protection from potentially hazardous contaminants, medical staff and patients rely on a consistently functioning filtering device. Ideally such equipment provides real-time feedback on filter status while it captures and filters surgical smoke plumes. This option requires a filter that is fitted with read-write technology, like RFID.

Advantages smart filter

Clearly the use of saturated or non-compatible filter cartridges can be a health-threatening exercise in the delicate medical context. Using an intelligent filter can add important health-protecting and cost-saving properties to surgical smoke evacuation apparatus, e.g.:

  • Filter compatibility, making sure the fume extraction unit carries the right filter to enable correct functionality
  • Filter personalization, registering operation dates, patient-ID, surgeon
  • Filter lifetime monitoring, LED indication of how far  the filter is from replacement, calculated by airflow or operating time; no money is wasted by disposing of filters before their time is due
  • Filter identification, recognizing the filter’s ID which prevents the re-use of expired filters or the use of substandard filter brands