Rebirth of a Doctor Without Regrets

Chapter 107 Mold Sketches

In Zhu Chunhua's small apartment, the warm yellow floor lamp was only half-lit, the light as soft as a freshly sun-dried velvet blanket, spilling over the light gray sofa and casting a warm, ambiguous shadow on the floor.

Outside the window, the faint neon lights of the city center of Kunming are filtered through a thin gauze curtain, forming blurry and gentle spots of light.

A faint aroma of fragrance wafted in the air, and the small nightlight beside the table lamp glowed softly, casting a warm, gentle light on the corner of the wall, the rim of the cup, and the ends of Zhu Chunhua's hair.

Several sheets of white paper and two pens were spread out on the sofa, with several surgical diagrams scattered around them.

Wang Xiao and Zhu Chunhua were half-lying on the large sofa, very close together, shoulder to shoulder, leg to leg.

With a speck of pencil ash on his fingertips, Wang Xiao drew a crooked, circular mold on the paper of his drawing board. The lines were crooked and neither round nor square.

Zhu Chunhua rested her head on Wang Xiao's chest, looking at his draft, and couldn't help but smirk.

"Is what you drew—a petal mold or a donut?"

"Don't laugh." Wang Xiao pointed to the sketch with a serious expression.

"The principle I drew is correct. The two rings clamp the excess part of the pericardial patch, lock the position to prevent it from sliding, press once to fix it, and then use a scalpel to cut open the locking part, directly obtaining a standard-sized ex vivo valve opening."

The mold designed by Wang Xiao is a one-piece fitting mold.

Simply insert a pericardial piece of sufficient length and width into the mold, then fasten it with the two buckles at the top and bottom, and press it down to fasten it in one go.

Then, the part secured by the buckle is cut off directly with a scalpel, and a sutured artificial flap is completed.

If this mold can be realized, the reconstruction speed of the artificial valve will definitely be faster than the speed of surgical removal of the diseased valve.

This is precisely the core advantage that makes the new technique that Wang Xiao developed by chance so competitive.

After the diseased valve orifice is removed, an artificial valve orifice with the leaflets already sutured can be directly inserted, minimizing the time spent in cardiopulmonary bypass and cardiac arrest.

This is crucial for patients undergoing secondary surgery whose hearts are often already damaged.

Zhu Chunhua came over, took the pen and added a few strokes to his donut, trying to draw the buckle and positioning groove. But the more she drew, the messier it got. The originally barely visible outline turned into a tangled mess of lines.

Wang Xiao burst out laughing on the spot: "You're laughing at me? This drawing of yours..."

"It was all your fault for starting this!" Zhu Chunhua raised her hand and lightly punched him, then simply threw down her pen and leaned on the sofa armrest, laughing.

After joking around for a while, the two went back to looking at the blueprints with worry.

Wang Xiao sighed: "Some skilled surgeons draw anatomical diagrams just like in textbooks. Obviously, neither of us are that kind of doctor."

"Hmm." Zhu Chunhua nodded, her eyes sparkling. "The surgical approach is yours, but to truly create a standardized mold, we still need to find a mechanical design engineer. If the two of us rely solely on hand-drawing, we won't be able to figure it out even by next year."

Wang Xiao tapped the ugly ring-shaped mold on the paper with his fingertip: "Actually, medical device companies have dedicated R&D departments. I—I've looked into it before. Iberia Medical in Germany makes valves and anastomotic devices. I have a friend there who should know about this."

He opened the hospital's work email and wrote an email, briefly explaining the mold requirements for the ex vivo valve reconstruction surgery, omitting the core surgical details, and only mentioning the integration concept of structure, size, snap-fit ​​method, and disposable anastomotic staples.

After sending the email, Wang Xiao felt quite confident.

After all, medical companies have limited ability to collect clinical information when developing new products, and doctors' opinions are very helpful to their product development.

Three days passed, but the email remained silent, without a single reply.

That evening, Wang Xiao was sitting in front of the public computer reading literature when Zhu Chunhua came to find him with a stack of printed draft papers.

The cover title is in English, which translates to "Application and Preliminary Clinical Experience of Novel Ex vivo Artificial Valve Reconstruction Technique in Secondary Tricuspid Valve Replacement".

She put the paper on the table and saw Wang Xiao staring blankly at the email interface.

"Still no reply?"

"No." Wang Xiao shook his head. "That's strange. I remember this person used to reply to messages very quickly."

Zhu Chunhua chuckled softly: "You've forgotten, you're just a resident physician now, your email signature says 'resident physician,' and pharmaceutical companies receive hundreds, even thousands, of emails every day. Who's going to pay attention to an anonymous resident physician?"

Wang Xiao scratched his head. Of course! When he was a pharmaceutical representative, would he have paid attention to resident doctors?

Pharmaceutical representatives are naturally most interested in the department head, and secondly in the head of the treatment team.

These are all managers with real power who can decide on the consumables and equipment used in their departments or groups.

Despite being at a relative disadvantage compared to Shen Hao and Lin Gaoming in the department, Zhu Chunhua is still one of the "Big Three" in cardiac surgery.

Of course, some small companies' pharmaceutical representatives are also keen to provide junior doctors with illegal services such as ghostwriting papers and outsourcing cell experiments, but this is obviously not something a large foreign company cares about.

Zhu Chunhua logged into her email account, copied and pasted Wang Xiao's email, and resent it using her own account.

The sender's signature is:

Zhu Chunhua, Associate Chief Physician, PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and head of the Third Treatment Group of Cardiac Surgery at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chunda University—this immediately makes one want to read the main text carefully.

That afternoon, Zhu Chunhua received a reply in her email.

She called Wang Xiao to her office. When Wang Xiao looked over, he saw that the recipient was not his old colleague, but a completely unfamiliar corporate email address.

The email was short but very formal: Dear Professor Zhu, Your proposed ex vivo valve reconstruction mold has significant clinical value, and our company highly values ​​it. We sincerely invite you and your core team members to our Beijing headquarters for a face-to-face meeting. The specific time can be arranged by you.

Wang Xiao looked at the reply, paused for a moment, and then chuckled.

He sent his request but received no response, while Zhu Chunhua received an invitation for a meeting that same day.

However, it seems that a new person was sent to handle the task?

"How was it? Isn't your sister amazing?" Zhu Chunhua looked up at Wang Xiao, a faint smile in her eyes.

"That's great, we have the paper, the technique, and now we have someone willing to discuss the model."

Wang Xiao looked at her and noticed that her clothes under her white coat had become increasingly fashionable lately.

Just as Wang Xiao circled around behind Zhu Chunhua, gently put his arm around her shoulder, and pressed his face against her ear, the office door was suddenly opened.

Shen Hao walked in wearing scrub clothes, looking like he had just finished surgery.

Seeing the two of them being affectionate, he didn't say a word or show any expression. He turned around and left, closing the door behind him.