A local Nova Scotia company found a solution for a global medical problem – the stuck ring

By: Kirsten Millar

 

Rings are an accessory worn across the globe to signify marriage, to make a fashion statement, to celebrate religion and culture, to remember a loved one and for other personal reasons. But a meaningful accessory can quickly become a real health threat when it gets stuck.

“It’s a common medical problem. Hundreds of millions of people wear rings every day and fingers can swell for many reasons. Stuck rings can turn into a finger-threatening emergency” says Dr. Kevin Spencer, CEO and Co-Founder of a local Nova Scotian company called Ring Rescue, which was created to solve this very problem.

As a Nova Scotian emergency department physician, Dr. Spencer saw patients coming into the hospital with swollen fingers and stuck rings, and he recognized that our health system didn’t have a reliable solution to remove them. Co-founder partners Patrick Hennessey and Brad MacKeil showcased a solution to this problem in a capstone project presentation at Dalhousie University, and the three teamed up to create Ring Rescue and solve this problem.

“Over the years, ring styles have certainly changed, but the technologies to manage stuck rings had not,” says Dr. Spencer. “As a result, medical professionals often had to improvise, for example, by using hardware store grinding tools like a Dremel on a patient's finger as a ring cutter. As you can imagine, this is dangerous.”

Dr. Spencer is also a mechanical engineer by trade, and a problem-solver by nature. Seeing the methods that health professionals had to resort to when facing a stuck ring inspired the mission of providing a better, safer solution for patients and clinicians. Along with his co-founders, the three launched Ring Rescue in 2018.

“We began like most startup companies, in a basement with an idea,” he says. Since 2018, Ring Rescue has grown to a team of 18 and has a manufacturing facility in Dartmouth.

Ring Rescue has developed the Ring Rescue Kit with two medical devices to solve the stuck ring problem. The Compression Device helps professionals remove the ring without having to cut or damage it by using an air-pressure-filled cuff to temporarily shrink the swollen finger, allowing the ring to slip off. “Shrink the finger, remove the ring, and preserve the memory,” says Dr. Spencer.

One patient whose ring and finger were saved by the Compression Device is a Nova Scotian artist named Mary Lynne McKay. She ended up with a painful swollen finger injured by a jolted dog leash which resulted in her multi-generational ring getting stuck on her finger.

McKay visited the hospital where they attempted to remove the ring using the traditional “string wrap” technique unsuccessfully, causing more finger pain and swelling. They attempted to cut the ring with a Dremel which was also unsuccessful.

With the ring still stuck and McKay’s finger worsening, she was transferred to a second site where the Ring Rescue Compression Device was available, and Dr. Spencer applied the device until McKay’s finger had shrunk enough to remove the ring.

“Eventually, he slowly maneuvered my finger, and he took my ring off safely. I was thrilled,” says McKay.

But, sometimes the Compression Device isn’t able to shrink a swollen finger enough to remove the ring, and that’s where the Dolphin Ring Cutter comes in. This device can cut every kind of ring metal, including Titanium and Tungsten. It has a guard that slips under the ring to protect the patient’s finger and has computer-controlled Smart Cutting which adjusts the cutting force and rate to prevent the ring from getting too hot, which allows the ring to be cut safely.

“The Ring Rescue Dolphin Ring Cutter was easy to use and provided the patient relief within minutes,” says Erika Swansburg, Clinical Nurse Lead at the Valley Regional Hospital Emergency Department. “It’s great to have a reliable tool for ring removal when these kinds of emergencies happen.”

And thanks to the Dolphin Ring Cutter’s accuracy and efficiency, rings are not necessarily lost when they have to be cut. The cut is so precise, it’s often possible to have the ring repaired and be able to wear it again (almost) like new.

“Together, these two devices help to ensure that patients with a stuck ring are provided the highest standard of care,” says Dr. Spencer. “Here at home, every emergency department and urgent care centre in Nova Scotia has now on-boarded our products as the new standard of care.”

In the past, easy stuck ring cases were simple, but difficult cases with significant risk to a finger sometimes took our healthcare professionals hours to solve. And like McKay, patients would often have to travel to more than one facility before someone was finally able to remove the ring. “The Ring Rescue Kit allows our healthcare professionals to solve this problem safely and efficiently, and move on to seeing other patients faster,” says Dr. Spencer.

This innovative solution is not only helping Nova Scotians – their Kits can be found in medical centres across North America too, including places like the Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai and the Cleveland Clinic. The Ring Rescue Kit has also received international recognition in published articles for the results it delivers.

“Partnering with Nova Scotia Health and the Health Innovation Hub is a perfect fit. Adopting our locally-made product province-wide ensures the highest quality care for patients needing medical assistance with ring entrapment,” says Dr. Spencer. “This also further validates the enterprise-wide model for other healthcare systems seeking a similar path. Nova Scotia has become a leading adopter and is helping lead practice-change across Canada, the US, and beyond.”

“We are proud of our achievements and our growth to date, but we look forward to what's ahead as we stride towards our goal of becoming the global standard of care for this common medical problem,” says Dr. Spencer.