PATENTED MEDICINE

Jude Sauer '81, '85M (MD) was doing his residency at the Medical Center when it dawned on him that his perspective on problem-solving allowed him to invent a new career for himself.

Sauer, the founder, president, and CEO of LSI Solutions, a Rochester-based company that specializes in noninvasive surgical devices, realized that he could easily picture surgical procedures in three dimensions.

It's a skill that would serve a surgeon well. But it also comes in handy for an inventor.

By the time he had completed his residency, Sauer had received his first patent for a laser-suturing device.

"I always thought that the ability to invent something was fascinating," Sauer says. "But I didn't know I had a talent for it."

Since that epiphany, Sauer has put his talent to use as the driving force behind LSI, a 50-employee company-a "team," Sauer emphasizes-that expects to have more than $10 million in sales this year, with plans for more growth.

Founded by Sauer and his wife, Eva, an Austrian-born medical doctor whom Sauer met while they were both researchers at Strong Memorial Hospital, the company now has more than 50 patents and is earning a reputation for its innovative approach to helping surgeons operate more effectively.

"Our objective isn't just to make cool things, but to make cool things that can teach people to do things better," Sauer says.

The company specializes in laparoscopic devices that allow surgeons to work inside a patient's body without making large incisions and in electronic display systems that use microcameras and video panels to give surgeons a better view of intricate internal procedures.

LSI's suturing devices won 2000 Medical Design Excellence Awards sponsored by Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry magazine.

The devices-the "Sew-Right" and the "Ti-Right"-are used to close incisions deep inside the body without the need for traditional open-body surgery. The gun-shaped devices look a little like an orchestra conductor's baton attached to a squeeze-trigger handle.

When the handle of the Sew-Right is squeezed, a surgical needle and thread peeks out of the end of the elongated barrel. The Ti-Right uses staple-like titanium bands to close sutures.

Using such laparoscopic devices and techniques, a surgeon can drastically reduce the time many procedures typically take, Sauer says. For example, hysterectomies, which often take up to three hours, can be completed in less than 45 minutes. And prostate surgeries can be cut from seven to 10 hours to less than two hours.

That means less trauma for the patient and quicker recoveries.

"The customer is ultimately the patient," Sauer says. "We always try to keep that in mind."

Sauer enrolled at Rochester on a Naval ROTC scholarship with plans to be a fighter pilot. While being fitted for his hat, he learned that his poor eyesight would prevent him from ever taking command in a cockpit.

So he turned to medicine, his father's profession.

"I always thought about medicine because I grew up with it," he says. "But I wasn't bit by the bug until my sophomore year."

A German literature major, Sauer was selected for the Rochester Plan Early Selection Program that allowed qualified pre- med students to get a jump start on their M.D. studies. He was admitted to the School of Medicine and Dentistry when he was 20.

While a resident, he worked on a research project exploring whether lasers could be used as suturing devices. The research showed that lasers would work, but that the practicalities of harnessing them would prevent their ever finding much use in the operating room.

It's a lesson that Sauer took with him when he set out on his own in 1988, initially to explore the potential of lasers.

Early in its existence, the company's mandate was to invent something "new" every month and something "revolutionary" every quarter.

That goal was easily batted out of the ballpark, Sauer says, sitting in his office lined with plaques commemorating the company's patents.

"We could invent something new every day," he says.

"Invention is the easy part. It's coming up with something that will help patients that's important."

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