{"335671":{"#nid":"335671","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Morzine Medical to help military on the battlefield","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Doak Table was created in a Baltimore garage in 2006 by a tinkering retiree equally at home in a boardroom or a machine shop.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday, the portable field surgical table has been tested and used worldwide by U.S. Army and Navy far forward surgical teams.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd, along with his two partners, the Marietta entrepreneur who saw its potential and formed a company in 2013 to buy the rights to commercialize it has inked his biggest deal yet: a seven-figure contract with the U.S. military.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve gone from a garage in Baltimore to this substantial order,\u201d said Mark W. Trimble, managing principal of Morzine Medical. \u201cThis is a game-changer for Morzine.\u0026nbsp; It is also an acknowledgement that the Doak Table is the benchmark for a mobile, lightweight and compact operating platform.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy year\u2019s end, the Atlanta-based company he runs projects construction of 70 of these lightweight, but sturdy surgical tables designed to be used in non-traditional medical care settings, such as the battlefield or in the aftermath of a catastrophic event.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;The Doak Table \u2014 named for the inventor\u2019s father, a military surgeon \u2014 will be used as the standard operating table for all the far forward surgical teams in one branch of the military.\u0026nbsp; Trimble believes that it is only a matter of time before the other branches adopt the Doak Table as well.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese surgical teams are formed to stabilize and resuscitate soldiers with life- or limb-threatening injuries \u2014 wounds so severe they need immediate treatment and can\u2019t wait to be brought to a military hospital.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cThey don\u2019t have the luxury of time, so the critical issue we sought to address was, \u2018how do we get the care closer to where they are,\u2019\u201d said Trimble, a Georgia Tech graduate (bachelor\u2019s in economics, 1989, and a master\u2019s in management, 1992).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Doak Table, which weighs between 41 and 45 pounds, can open from its folded dimensions of 41\u201d-x-12\u201d-x-15\u201d to full use in less than one minute.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s quite a differentiator for the no-assembly-required Doak Table, compared with competitors\u2019 models that can take up to 30 minutes to put together.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith no loose pieces to put together and a design that can hold up to 600 pounds, the Doak Table allows surgeons to focus on saving lives without worrying about one of their most important tools: a stable platform with all the functionality of a standard operating table found inside hospitals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHaving an operating table that could make a genuine difference in helping save soldiers\u2019 lives was critically important to us,\u201d Trimble said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 2012, the \u003Cem\u003EJournal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery\u003C\/em\u003E published a study that found over a 10-year period, roughly a quarter of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action \u2014 1,000 soldiers \u2014 died from wounds that they might have survived with implementation of more advanced battlefield care and protocols.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMorzine is a member company of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), an incubator of business startups at Georgia Tech\u2019s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI\u003Csup\u003E2\u003C\/sup\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEI\u003Csup\u003E2\u003C\/sup\u003E, through its various programs, is charged with spurring economic development across the state and helping entrepreneurial startups such as Morzine grow and thrive.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EATDC, Trimble said, helped prepare his company to be able to meet the military\u2019s goals and objectives.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWith Georgia Tech\u2019s help, we\u2019re in a position to supply the U.S. military with Doak Tables and in sufficient quantities to allow it to be the standard operating table in far forward surgical hospitals.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIndeed, the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), another EI\u003Csup\u003E2\u003C\/sup\u003E\u0026nbsp;arm that focuses on strengthening the state\u2019s manufacturing sector, helped Morzine find an aerospace machine company \u2014 headquartered in Cobb County \u2014 that could build the tables to the exact required specifications.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBill Ritsch, GaMEP\u2019s North Metro Atlanta region manager, connected Morzine with a short list of companies across the state that met its needs, helping to get rapid, scaled production faster.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey accelerated the process because we were able to tap into their knowledge,\u201d Trimble said, adding Ritsch\u2019s help also made it easier for the company to get face time with manufacturers that might otherwise be leery of a startup.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERitsch said the process of helping a startup with a production need find a manufacturing partner in-state was seamless.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s awesome whenever we can do that,\u201d Ritsch said. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole goal.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother important principle for Morzine was that all of the parts used to manufacture the operating tables be made in America.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat\u2019s more, aside from a small number of parts made in Maryland and South Carolina, the entire table is fabricated and assembled in Georgia.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Atlanta startup signed seven-figure contract for surgical beds"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Doak Tables are used in surgical procedures out on the battlefield by the U.S. Army and Navy and can be put together in less than a minute. It\u0026nbsp; will be used as the standard operating table for all the far forward surgical teams in one branch of the military.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Doak Table is a portable field surgical table has been tested and used worldwide"}],"uid":"27918","created_gmt":"2014-10-20 16:43:17","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:19","author":"Laura Diamond","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"335681":{"id":"335681","type":"image","title":"Doak Table","body":null,"created":"1449245150","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:05:50","changed":"1475895048","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:48","alt":"Doak Table","file":{"fid":"200497","name":"doak_dual_image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/doak_dual_image_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/doak_dual_image_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":974489,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/doak_dual_image_0.jpg?itok=4725M62A"}}},"media_ids":["335681"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"147","name":"Military Technology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"3336","name":"army"},{"id":"4238","name":"atdc"},{"id":"3671","name":"Enterprise Innovation Institute"},{"id":"16331","name":"GaMEP"},{"id":"3773","name":"navy"},{"id":"169511","name":"surgery"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"106361","name":"Business and Economic Development"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaura Diamond\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.diamond@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}