Local doctor wins international award
Published: Friday, December 15, 2017
The South African Society of Anaesthesiologists (SASA) is proud to announce that Dr Caroline Corbett, a Cape Town-based private practitioner and active participant of the SASA private practice business unit (PPBU) committee, has won the prestigious 2017 WFSA-Fresenius Kabi Anaesthesia Innovation Award.
This was for her team’s creation of the SmartBlade, a locally made video laryngoscope with a novel design that is extremely cost-effective and harnesses smartphone technology.
Corbett, together with her husband, developed this technology to provide enhanced access and care to patients.
Says Natalie Zimmelman, CEO of SASA, “This is an incredible international recognition of Caroline’s achievement and comes with valuable support, including a financial grant for the furtherance of the product; business mentors from WFSA (World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists) and Fresenius Kabi (a global health care company that specializes in lifesaving medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition); the production of a promotional video; and an invitation to present at WCA 2020 (the 17th World Congress of Anaesthesiologists). SASA is extremely proud of her achievements and looks forward to seeing the final product in our hospitals soon.”
“We are truly honoured to be the recipients of such a prestigious award and extremely grateful for the opportunities it will offer in ultimately facilitating the delivery of the SmartBlade to clinicians who need it most,” says Corbett.
She further notes that she was “very emotional, to be honest, as we had been so afraid the invention would never reach the people it needed to in order to make a difference”.
