It may sound like a scene out of a comedy TV show or movie, but getting a ring stuck on your finger is a rather common occurrence. In fact, one or two people a week will walk into an emergency room to try and have their rings removed from their swollen finger.
Conventional methods of removing the rings often involve painfully wrapping string around the finger to compress the swelling or, in a worst-case scenario, simply cutting the ring off entirely. But emergency room doctors are now taking a new approach to the problem, using a device known as RingRescue to treat patients.
Created by four alumni from Dalhousie鈥檚 Faculty of Engineering, RingRescue is designed to temporarily decrease swelling in your finger, allowing a ring to easily slip off within minutes.
鈥淭he device is a solution to a problem that we thought we were going to solve a very different way,鈥� says Patrick Hennessey.
Hennessey, along with former classmates Mason Landry, Brad MacKeil and Callum Thompson, designed the device as part of their 2017 pilipili漫画 Capstone Design Project.
Students within the Faculty of Engineering are required to complete a Capstone project in their final year of study. Student teams are matched with partners from industry to solve real world challenges. However, in some cases, students can pursue their own ideas.
鈥淎t the time, when we were trying to come up with concepts for our design project, we thought we were going to design a ring cutter because that鈥檚 what everyone complained about,鈥� says Hennessey. 鈥淭hen we started digging a little deeper and realized that people just don鈥檛 want to have their valuable rings cut off.鈥�
Instead, what they invented was a first-of-its-kind product: a device designed with a simple air pump and a cuff that easily slips onto your finger and removes a ring within five minutes.
鈥淲hat the device is doing is applying external pressure to a swollen finger. There is fluid in-between your cells, and we just want that fluid to temporarily go somewhere else,鈥� says Hennessey. 鈥淪o, we force it either to the tip of your finger or past the ring base and it will temporarily make your finger small enough to get the ring off with lubrication.鈥�
Fast forward two years and Hennessey and team have now established RingRescue as their own business, manufacturing devices for hospitals and jewelers all over North America.聽
The original Ring Rescue team at the Capstone Conference in 2017.
From concept to reality
It was a goal they鈥檇 been striving to achieve ever since sitting down to discuss ideas for their Capstone Project.
鈥淪eeing the way you can bring an idea to life was very cool,鈥� says MacKeil. 鈥淎t the time we thought what better way to get something kickstarted than to use our last year in engineering to start a project that we could turn into a business. But I never thought it would end up being quite what it is today.鈥�
The idea of compressing a swollen finger isn鈥檛 brand new. A quick Google search can find videos on how to use dental floss or other different wraps to compress a finger.
鈥淏ut the problem with all of those is that you鈥檙e very tightly wrapping something around a finger that鈥檚 already swollen, and that鈥檚 incredibly painful,鈥� says MacKeil. 鈥淪o that鈥檚 what it came down to: finding a better way to squish the finger compared to just using a piece of string.鈥�
After experimenting with various prototypes, the team was ready to present their project at the 2017 Capstone Conference. It was there that they were approached by one of the judges at the event, an emergency room doctor named Dr. Kevin Spencer, who later teamed up with Hennessey and MacKeil to refine and test the device on patients in the ER.
鈥淭he device looks deceptively simple but getting the right material and figuring out an effective way of squishing your finger has been a challenge,鈥� says Hennessey.
Ringing in the future
RingRescue has now received a license from Health Canada and clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to move ahead with their product.
鈥淭oday we鈥檝e sold our first 200 units and we鈥檙e just completing our first production run. If all goes well, we鈥檒l be shipping next week,鈥� says Hennessey. 鈥淭his is a huge deal for us. This is our first time shipping our final product to customers.鈥�
The team however isn鈥檛 just targeting hospitals. They鈥檝e also turned their attention to jewelry stores, many of which are trying to move away from ring cutting because it carries a lot of risk for them.
鈥淭he beauty of our device is that it鈥檚 super safe,鈥� says Hennessey. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a prescribed pressure and there鈥檚 a prescribed amount of time that you can put this device on your finger. This is a much safer way of getting rings off.鈥�
Although two of their original team members, Landry and Thompson, have moved on to pursue other professional opportunities, MacKeil and Hennessey鈥檚 team is now up to eight, including a newly appointed CEO hired to target international markets. (They鈥檙e also looking to add an export developer.) And they鈥檙e looking forward to what the future has in store.
鈥淭here are so many paths that RingRescue could lead us down,鈥� he says. 鈥淲ith that being said, both of us are in agreeance that we would like to see RingRescue become the global standard for ring removal.鈥�
The original RingRescue prototype.