The owners of Surgilūm, an eye surgery device company headquartered in Wilmington, say their company is small but nimble like its award-winning devices. The six-person team develops and provides surgeons with tools to simplify surgical procedures.

Alan W. Brown, president and founding surgeon of Wilmington’s Surgical Eye Care and CEO and founder of Surgilūm, was recently recognized as the recipient of multiple international medical device design awards by three associations.

Based in downtown Wilmington, much of the assembly is done in-house with regard to the lasers, optics, weights and ball bearings.

Surgilūm’s newest device, the RoboMarker G2, is a precision pre-operative device used by eye surgeons to accurately mark the eye for astigmatism prior to refractive surgery and has been honored with five international awards in the past year.

The RoboMarker 2 has won multiple awards, including two New York Product Design Awards, two Titan Health Awards and an International Design Excellence Award. The original device has been named among the Top 10 innovations in cataract treatment.

“Part of our image, we say, is that it’s got to be a tool that doctors need, works well, incorporates USA-sourced parts and has to perform a need and serve a purpose, as well as be very durable. It must be runway ready,” said Debbie Brown, president of Surgilūm and Alan Brown’s wife.

She said the device enhances efficiency in the operating room, eliminating several steps and thereby reducing error. Its features provide heightened precision and improved outcomes for surgeons and their patients, while also proving more efficient and cost-effective than standard measures, she said.

Debbie Brown explained that the RoboMarker’s evolution began in ambulatory surgical centers (ASC) and gained a following of surgeons.

“People in an ASC see it, like it and want their own. It fits in a scrub pocket; does what a much larger piece of equipment does, at a fraction of the cost,” she said. “It is a unique, accurate, efficient surgical device.”

The RoboMarker 2’s long-lasting marks allow surgeons to mark multiple patients in pre-op and then see patients one by one in the operating rooms. This saves the time from going back and forth from pre-op to OR and eliminates the need for secondary marking in the OR, taking out the guesswork of marking points, Debbie Brown said.

“It is foolproof. It is only for patients with astigmatism which is about 40% of the population. If you do not mark correctly, you will not get a good outcome,” she said.

Surgilūm products are used in military hospitals and residency programs. The RoboMarker system can be found in surgical settings across the country, including Bascom Palmer, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Walter Reed, Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic.

“The handheld device fills a niche. It is every bit as accurate and comes at a much lower cost and takes up much less room than the larger equipment, which is a big capital investment …This is a nimble tool for surgeons to use,” Debbie Brown said.

The RoboMarker 2 can be used by resident doctors who are honing their surgical crafts. Each RoboMarker 2’s mark lasts a long time, so it gives residents the time they need to build confidence and assures a safe surgery for the patient, Debbie Brown said.

“The handheld device fills a niche. It is every bit as accurate and comes at a much lower cost and takes up much less room than the larger equipment … This is a nimble tool for surgeons to use.” - Debbie Brown, president of Surgilum

Surgilūm’s outreach through residency programs began in 2016, when several surgeons, affiliated with some of the nation’s top programs, discovered not only the accuracy but the ease of use that Surgilūm products brought to astigmatism management, Debbie Brown said.

The RoboMarker is now in programs across the country, giving residents an easier, more streamlined and accurate approach to corneal marking for a variety of eye surgeries.

Alan Brown has designed more than a dozen medical devices in ophthalmology to improve surgical outcomes. He founded Surgilūm in 2013 to help accelerate the process of bringing these innovations to the market by expediting the transformation of his prototypes into useful devices.

“The RoboMarker system has been a pursuit to create a new category of medical devices. Our focus is to combine beauty and luxury with first-in-class precision innovation” said Alan Brown, who currently holds 15 patents and has been named among the Top 200 cataract surgeons in the US.

Initially, the Browns had looked at other ways to market the RoboMarker device, but at that time in the industry, many larger companies were acquiring smaller companies, so they decided to stay small and do it themselves despite the industry challenges.

“It is hard to start a medical device company. Getting FDA clearance and having to jump through all the hoops is grueling,” Debbie Brown said.

A self-funded company, Surgilūm is continuing to grow by word of mouth and has built relationships with eye care specialists.
“We get to know our doctors,” Debbie Brown said.

Alan Brown continues to come up with new ideas about surgeries and procedures. He currently reserves his surgical time for special cases, which leaves him with more time for creativity.

“Feedback has been great. At trade shows, current users always come up and say how great the product is, getting this unsolicited praise for the products makes future sales easier,” Debbie Brown said. “It is much more accurate, which makes a better outcome for surgery.”