During his time as a medical student, Stephen Canton focused on learning about how the processes inside hospitals work and considering ways to improve them.
“I had a lot of time to observe what was going on in the operating room,” Canton said. “There were instances when a surgeon would ask for a tool, and it was not available. … I started to ask questions like why is that happening?”
So Canton, an orthopedic surgery resident at UPMC, and his co-founder, Dukens LaBaze, came up with the idea for Sterile Vision, which launched in 2020.
“We kind of put our brains together and found that in the operating room, in the workflow process, there are a lot of excessive tools,” Canton said. “Meaning that there are a lot of tools that are unused.”
Those unused tools, he said, then create more work in sterilizing and tray assembly processes for jobs that are already understaffed. Canton said the problem costs hospitals “millions of dollars.”
Currently, most hospitals use bar codes or radio frequency identification to track the tools used during surgery. Canton said that during customer discovery for Sterile Vision, he learned that most current labeling techniques remain labor intensive and are subject to degrading over time as the tools are washed.
Sterile Vision uses computer vision by placing smart glasses or a headset on personnel in the operating room to identify needed tools. Canton said the technology can then tell people what tools were used and which ones were not and increase accuracy of the entire process.
However, while Canton wanted to change the process, he also wanted to keep many elements constant.
Many surgeons who have been using the same detailed processes for years are hesitant to change, he said.
“When you disrupt a process as intricate as surgery, there are a lot more barriers to implementation,” Canton said. “What can we do that does not interrupt the current workflow?”
Sterile Vision earned second place and $15,000 in funding from the University of Pittsburgh’s Randall Family Big Idea competition in spring 2020 and $1,000 from another pitch competition. The startup also received $15,000 in funding as part of AlphaLab Health’s first cohort of companies.
“That was our first investment, and then we formed a C-corp because that is the best structure for ultimately implementing into a larger system like UPMC or AHN, which is our target market,” Canton said.
To get there, Sterile Vision, which has a team of three, filed a provisional patent. Canton said he is in talks with Allegheny Health Network’s central sterile department, and he plans to give his final presentation for AlphaLab Health with investors in late June.
Canton said when Sterile Vision achieves a viable product, the startup plans to start a pilot program at UPMC or AHN and run trials within one of their surgical lines to display product success.
After that, Canton said the company expects to expand to other surgical service lines and look for investment from larger hospital systems that can provide personnel to run studies.
However, laying out this plan in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic did not come without its challenges. Canton said customer discovery proved a hurdle.
Canton studied biomechanics at Pitt before earning a master’s degree from Louisiana State University in kinesiology, a master’s degree from Pitt in clinical research and a doctorate of medicine from Pitt.
“As soon as I went into the operating room for the first time, it was so cool,” Canton said. “I felt like an astronaut the first time I put the gloves on.”
Q&A
What are the pros of being a young entrepreneur? The pro of being a young entrepreneur is just going anywhere to find that knowledge or ask questions. That curiosity. And people are pretty accepting of you asking questions as a young entrepreneur because they know you are trying to fix a problem. … It’s a very humbling process because some days will go really well and other days will go extremely poorly. You think, ‘why am I doing this?’ I am going to residency and going to have a solid job. … But it is so rewarding it is almost addictive on the good days.
What advice would you give to another young entrepreneur? Don’t be afraid to fail or to put yourself out there in awkward situations. There is a difference between pitching an idea to an investor and pitching an idea to a stakeholder, so just put yourself into as many of those situations as possible because it expedites your learning.
How do you get people to take you seriously as a young entrepreneur? I think a big part of it is advocacy. That is associated with getting mentors that are prominent or validated in their fields. Ours would be our mentors on the surgical side or health care administration. And in terms of getting people that have technical expertise, because we are doing computer vision and artificial intelligence. … And then not only that, but just even having organizational level advocates such as AlphaLab Health. Really getting vetted by people that have seen many early stage companies and getting accepted and working through a process shows a level of confidence in (your) ability to succeed.
TIMELINE
Personal:
Born and raised in Pittsburgh and graduated from Allderdice High School in 2009
2009-2013
Earned bachelor’s degree in bioengineering and biomedical engineering at University of Pittsburgh
2013-2015
Earned master’s of science in kinesiology at Louisiana State University
2016-2021
Earned doctorate of medicine at Pitt
2019-2020
Earned master’s of science in clinical research at Pitt
Professional:
2020
Founded Sterile Vision
Spring 2020
Won Pitt’s Randall Family Big Idea pitch competition
Spring 2021
Started in the AlphaLab Health accelerator program
BIOBOX
Age: 29
Title: Co-founder, Sterile Vision
Dream Job: Professional soccer player
If you could have a conversation with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? Muhammad Ali, just because he was great in an era where there was a lot of political strife. He navigated in interesting ways while still perfecting his craft, and I feel that I could apply that to today, and although I am not a professional boxer, surgeons have to perfect their craft.
